ohn Mitchell Sedley is a professional thief nearing the end of a five-year stretch in the state pen. Face disfigured since birth, a cleft palate leaving his speech muffled and snorting, Sedley coped with derision and rejection as a youth by drifting into a life of crime. While on the inside, as the guinea pig in a rehabilitation experiment, Johnny goes under the knife to repair his cleft, chin, ears, brow and broken nose — an alteration so extreme that even the convict’s own mother wouldn’t recognize him. 

          Once in the free world, his new face should find him the respect he needs to live a clean life, or so his surgeon Dr. Katsouras believes. On the outside, Johnny attempts to go straight but can’t resist the lure of crime. It’s not long before he’s casing the local small town bank and planning his double-cross for Jappy, the tightwad who couldn’t bribe a cop to keep him out of prison.