Educated but arrogant writer John Brennan is imprisoned for a crime which could be viewed as doing society a ‘favour’. Editor of the prison newspaper, he uses his natural talents to campaign against the death penalty. Bobby Alvin Reyburn has the next door cell. A member of the Aryan nation, he is a racist mass murderer driven by the belief that when he dies he will be rewarded for his actions in heaven. Despite the gulf between them, as the two inmates await their walk down the green mile they develop an understanding.