From the stage play by John Herbert, this film was directed by Harvey Hart. It was shot entirely within a Quebec prison. It features:

Wendell Burton as Smitty

Michael Greer as Queenie

Zooey Hall as Rocky

Danny Freedman as Mona

Larry Perkins as Screwdriver

Lazaro Perez as Catso

Opening scene: a bell is tolling as prisoners are loaded into a prison van. Women watching from behind a fence. Focus on one young, nervous white kid. Smitty is issued his clothes by Screwdriver and taken to his new cell. Rocky is playing with matches.

Queenie comes on the scene, dispensing candy and cigarettes (and cocaine). Queenie and Jan (who is called Mona Lisa) come into the four-man cell. Queenie wants to know what Smitty did, but he won't say. Smitty says he isn't queer: he has a girl. Queenie looks around the cell for her.

In the morning, Queenie puts on pants pressed under her mattress. Rocky takes the photos of Smitty's girlfriend Cathy to look out without asking permission, then refuses to give them back. Queenie keeps referring to Jan as "bitch" and calling him "Mona." Queenie says Mona was gang raped by eight guys, calling him "public property." (20:00)

The bathroom is crowded in the morning. Some inmates ask Rocky about his new "girl:" Smitty. Rocks puts Mona down by putting shaving cream on his nose. In the dining hall, another inmate takes Smitty's meat from his tray. Rocky tells him to put it back. When the guy calls Rocky "Mother," Rocky smashes him in the face with his tin cup and breaks his nose in a brief fight. So now Rocky is Smitty's protector.

Later in the cellblock, several inmates crowd around Smitty. They are about to grab him when Rocky appears. They turn instead to another young inmate, taking him into a cell and stripping him naked. They hold him down while several have anal sex with him. The guards look on but don't intervene. Someone starts a water fight by pouring water from the catwalk onto the first floor. Soon they are all throwing water while the rape continues.

Queenie, smart-mouthed as always, visits the hospital ward. He has a shopping list: peroxide, aspirin, adhesive tape, uppers. (Does he pay with cigarettes or cash in cigarette packs?) The doctor asks him about the Christmas show. Mona is doing Shakespeare, while Queenie is going to be wrapped with 18 yards of fabric and wearing high heels. He's getting shoes from Warden Gasher's maid. He asks about getting a wig.

Rocky and Smitty smoke hashing together int he cell (38:00), using a razor as a hash pipe. Rocky calls the guard "the pusher." Rocky tells Smitty: "I've been thinking." (Dangerous concept.) He warns Smitty that he isn't catching on. He has to watch out for the faggots. Rocky tells him he wants to be a pimp with a couple of girls hustling for him when he gets out of prison. He came to prison for stealing the XKE of a john who paid him for S&M sex. Rocky warns Smitty that he is gang bang material and tells him he needs an "old man." He wants to be Smitty's old man. Smitty says he doesn't know what this means. Rocky says that means he will kill anyone who tries to lay a hand on him. He doesn't say anything about the sexual favors in return. They shake hands (44:30). Rocks asks why don't they take a shower. Smitty says no, but Rocky pushes him inside, saying, "I like my boys clean." Rocky is the predator; Smitty is the prey. Smitty begs, but it doesn't work. Rocky tells him to take his clothes off. The sex happens offscreen, under a shower.

Mona is making Rocky's bed the next morning. Rocky tells him to stop: Smitty will do it from now on. Queenie is in the laundry, undressed, being fitted for her Christmas dress. Mona is taking the measurements; Queenie sucks her gut in for a small waistline. A black con is pretending to nuzzle Queenie's breasts.

Smitty has to start doing chores for Rocky, like rolling his cigarettes. Mona asks about Smitty's girl. He says her name is Cathy. Above Mona's bed is a sonnet from Shakespeare. The opening line is: "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes." Mona is reciting the poem to Smitty when Rocky comes in. He shoves Mona around for sitting on his bed, then slaps Smitty for being disrespectful. Smitty walks away. Rocky says he has plans for them. When Smitty is reluctant, Rocky threatens him with being raped in the gym. Smitty asks him not to do that. Rocky takes him into the shower for sex, but Queenie and a guard interrupt.

In the clothing room, Catso accuses Rocky of taking his lighter. Rocky has slipped it to Screwdriver. The guards take Catso to a cell and whip him with a leather strap. He dies, and the guards take him out through the snow to bury him. The official cause of death: pneumonia.

In the cell later, Queenie calls Rocky a third-rate hustler and reminds him that early in his prison life, Screwdriver had made him "debutante of the year." Queenie asks Smitty why he is Rocky's buddy. Queenie says he thought Rocky was a man. He asks Smitty if he likes it. If he doesn't, why doesn't he fight back? "What's in it for you?" Smitty asks Queenie. Queenie says he doesn't like to see him pushed around. (Never believe a Queen.)

Rocky is in a romantic mood in the steamy shower room. When Rocky offers Smitty a lubricant, Smitty sucker punches him. While they fight in the shower, Queenie creates a distraction by having the block singing "Silent Night." The wrestling match goes on awhile; Smitty finally chokes Rocky nearly unconscious and walks away (1:15:30).

At the Christmas show, Mona comes out dressed as a monk reciting Shakespeare. While he is being booed, Screwdriver takes Rocky's seat next to Smitty. Queenie emerges in a black dress: "Santa Claus couldn't make it this year, but your good fairy came through." Queenie does a song and dance striptease, prancing around in front of cons and guards in one of the most outrageous scenes in prison movie history. When the warden gets up to leave, Queenie pulls off his panties, revealing that he is definitely a man. "Throw that pervert in the hole," the warden says, and a riot breaks out (1:24:00). Queenie is taken to the hole for a week.

In the cell, Smitty begins to act assertively, telling Rocky to move his stuff out to make room for Smitty's. Smitty takes Rocky's bed. (Why hasn't Rocky tried to regain the advantage over Smitty?) When Rocky refuses, Smitty slaps him around. Rocky snaps. He pulls a shiv, a spoon with a sharpened handle. Smitty picks up a pillow to defend himself. When the guards come in, Rocky is screaming and crying: "You bitches are all in this together." Rocky runs past the guards and gets to the upper tier. He goes wild throwing debris until the guards overpower him with a mattress. He is screaming when they carry him away. In solitary, Rocky slits his wrists with a razor blade and bleeds to death (has he been smoking dope again?) (1:32:30).

Smitty takes down the pictures of Cathy in his cell. Then he starts sweet-talking Mona, who climbs into the upper bunk to get away from him. Smitty says he is in for drugs; his father turned him in. Mona reluctantly says he is in prison for being raped by four guys; they told police that he had propositioned them. Smitty says he is going to be a con politician, thanks to Driver's help. Smitty wants Mona to be his punk, but Mona doesn't want him, not that way. Smitty tries to get oral sex, but Mona refuses, saying this is about power and sex. He doesn't want it. Smitty punches him and knocks him around. Smitty starts to cry, saying, "Help me." Mona says, "I love you."

Queenie comes in and goes crazy, saying they are on Rocky's bed. A fight starts. The guards come and Smitty gets off Queenie. They haul Smitty away, with Mona yelling, "I need him back." "There'll be other Smittys," Queenie says. The guards take Smitty to a dark lockdown cell, strip him naked, and leave him in the dark. He is still yelling that he did not do anything. Credits roll over the view from inside the darkened cell (1:42:00). Smitty has become a real convict.