Larry Winters was sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder in a Soho bar in London in 1963.

The film is composed of flashbacks into his younger life as a soldier in the parachute regiment and his childhood in Glasgow and Carbisdale.

Since the film deals primarily with the convict Winters, the viewer experiences his memories to the fullest.

Content with messing about in the military, Winters soon becomes disenchanted with the army, takes part in a brutal beating of another soldier and goes AWOL.

Before running off, the viewer witnesses his indecision to take the gun his older brother gave him.

Later, the two boys break into a mansion house and his brother Don finds a gun and some bullets.

Meeting with his older brother (now played by Alexander Morton) and his mother in the family home is one of the most upsetting recurring themes of the film.