As a young man, Harold Morris runs with the wrong crowd, drinks, does drugs, and is proud to be a racist. By the time he is in his late 20's, he is serving two life sentences, one for murder and one for armed robbery, in the Georgia State Penitentiary. Shortly after his, Warden Kelso is forced to integrate his prison. Kelso throws Harold into an 8' by 10' cell with a balck man, Doc Odomes. They are guinea pigs-used by the warden to prove blacks and whites can live together in prison. The warden forces these two men to enlist other inmates to play in the prison's first integrated basketball game. This expereince leads to the prison's integratin, as well as a chance for Harold to begin overcoming his racism and hatred.