Larry Murphy was convicted of first degree murder and is serving a life term in Folsom Prison for shooting his father, which he feels was justified because his father was raping his stepsister. In prison he is nicknamed "Lickety Split" by the other inmates, but remains a loner who has only one person he calls a friend: a black inmate named Stiles. The film centers around his obsession for running around the prison yard. Larry has no idea how fast he is actually running until the prison psychologist (Geoffrey Lewis) has the prison sports writer time him. Once the warden (Billy Green Bush) finds out just how fast Murphy is, he has the state track and field coach (Ed Lauter) bring up a couple of his distance runners to run against Murphy. Murphy beats them and ultimately allows the track coach to train him in anticipation of the upcoming olympic trials. Before that can happen however, a new track has to be built to proper specs in the yard for Murphy to run on so he can register an official time to be eligible to compete at the olympic trials. The Warden asks the inmates to volunteer to build the new track.