Taxi driver Joe Lourik gets in an argument with the manager of a cab finance company over payments that owes on his new cab. Believing that he has been cheated, Joe reclaims his payments and is arrested for robbery. Escaping with a pair of handcuffs dangling from his wrists, Joe jumps on a passing freight train where he meets a tramp who gives him the address of Patian, a thief and a fence in San Diego, from whom he can get his handcuffs removed. In San Diego, Patian agrees to remove the cuffs on the condition that Joe drive the getaway car for a bank robbery. After the robbery, Patian sends Joe to a boarding house in Sacramento to await his cut of the money. Growing impatient, Joe decides to return to San Diego and enters a flower shop with the intention of robbing it. At the store, he meets clerk Laura Benson, falls in love at first sight and decides to go straight. With his winnings from a crap game, Joe buys a garage in Amesville and settles down, but a year later, the police are back on his trail. Desperate, Joe travels to San Diego to demand money from Patian, but Patian's thugs waylay him, forcing Joe to rob a post office . Afraid that he will be caught if he returns home, Joe disappears. Some time later, he sees a picture of his newborn baby in the paper and arranges for a meeting with Laura who pleads with Joe to give himself up and serve his time so that he can start a new life. Hearing footsteps, Joe flees from the police who have followed Laura, and Laura is arrested as an accomplice. While Laura is in jail, Joe decides to steal enough money so that Laura and his daughter will be financially secure, and so he embarks upon a crime wave which earns him the moniker of "the million dollar bandit." After serving her sentence, Laura arranges for another meeting with Joe and again pleads with him to give himself up. As the police surround them, Joe has no other choice but to concede to his wife's wishes.