In 1936 Germany, seven prisoners escape from the fictitious Westhofen concentration camp (partly based on the real Osthofen concentration camp) near the Rhine: a writer, a circus performer, a schoolmaster, a farmer, a Jewish grocery clerk, George Heisler [Spencer Tracy], and his friend Wallau [Ray Collins]. The escapees’ perilous trek sets the stage for a stark portrait of courage under tyranny.
The camp’s sadistic commandant erects a row of seven crosses and vows to “put a man on each.” > "put a man on each"
The first to be apprehended is Wallau, who dies without giving up any information. With the dead Wallau narrating, the story follows Heisler as he makes his way across the German countryside, stealing a jacket to cover his prison garb. The Nazis round up other escaped prisoners, where they are returned to the camp and hung on crosses, suspended by their arms tied behind their backs.
Heisler travels to his home city Mainz, where his former girlfriend, Leni, Kaaren Verne resides. She had promised to wait for him, but she has since married and refuses to help. While Heisler hides nearby, another of the escapees, the acrobat, leaps to his death to avoid being captured. Mme. Marelli, [Agnes Moorehead], unaware that he and the acrobat have escaped, gives him a suit of clothes that were intended for the acrobat.
Another prisoner, the writer, tracks Heisler down and almost convinces him to give himself up along with him. With Heisler's options further limited, he goes to see Franz Marnet, [Herbert Rudley], in the German underground. Heisler’s risk mounts as the underground network uses false identification papers to help him vanish from the authorities and find a way to safety.
Roeder, an old friend, is drawn into the danger as Heisler confides that he is an escapee. Old friend Paul Roeder, Hume Cronyn, a factory worker with a wife and young children, nevertheless decides to aid him, attempting to shield him from the tightening grip of the regime.
Roeder goes to see Heisler's old friend Sauer, George Macready, but Sauer refuses to help. Sauer, feeling guilty about refusing to help, goes to see Franz Marnet in the underground, and the group realizes Heisler is hiding with Roeder. They hastily move to a new hiding place in an inn just before Marnet arrives.
Roeder is taken in for questioning by the Gestapo but is released without giving any information. The underground group then secures false identification papers for Heisler and directs him toward a rendezvous with a ship that will carry him out of Germany. Through his exposure to this courage and kindness, and with the help of the sympathetic waitress at the inn, Toni, Signe Hasso, Heisler regains his faith in humanity. He escapes by boat to an unknown destination that he identifies as “probably Holland.”
