This film is based on a true story. William Hayes, a naive young American vacationing with his girlfriend in Istanbul, Turkey, tries to smuggle a couple of kilos of hash out of the country. He is caught, thrown into a Turkish prison, and subsequently raped, tortured, and forced into the brutality that defines the inmates' constant struggle for survival. There are other foreigners there, many for smuggling, and word is that the only way out of the jail is by dying, or taking "the midnight express." Max, his friend and fellow inmate swears, "That train doesn't run around here."