After being trained to kill by the Resistance, Rene Le Guen, an illiterate, drunken young man brought up in the slums, returns home -- where he continues murdering. Finally arrested for shooting a policeman, Rene is tried and sentenced to execution, then sent to prison to meet his fate. With other condemned men, Rene learns of the dread and utter misery of waiting for a grisly guillotine death that, by the laws of the land, can occur any night without warning.