Bank Merchant Andy Dufresne is convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover, and sentenced to life imprisonment at Shawshank prison. Life seems to have taken a turn for the worse, but fortunately, only Andy befriends some of the other inmates, in particular, a character is known only as Red.

Over time Andy finds ways to live out life with relative ease as one can in a prison, leaving a message for all that while the body may be locked away in a cell, the spirit can never be truly imprisoned.