Tal is in a lot of trouble. Seems that his father has been murdered while he was in Montana and they put the blame on him. Also, he has been framed and sentenced to 10 years hard labor for another murder which he did not do. The crooks need convict labor to build the dam so they convict innocent people for a pool of cheap labor. But Karan believes that Tal, using the name Smith J. Brown, could not be a killer. Unknown to her, her step brother, Hub, is part of the gang.

Young Alice Mason wishes to start a family, but because her own has been deemed "defective" by the state health authorities—her parents are lazy alcoholics who continue breeding, and her siblings are disabled, have mental problems or are imprisoned—she is ordered by a court to undergo sterilization so that her family's "defective genes" won't be passed on to any further. Her boyfriend Jim and a kindly priest search desperately for a way to stop the forced surgery before it's too late.