Young Bob Terry has it all. As a freshman engineer with big ideas at the metalworks plant, he's caught the eye of both his no nonsense boss, John Borden, and Borden's attractive daughter, Lois. Bob's professional, financial, and personal fortunes look pretty rosy, until $5000 is stolen from one of his accounts. Armed with his self-righteous sense of law-and-order justice, Borden has no qualms in testifying against his employee, despite Bob's claims of innocence. Sentenced to fifteen years for embezzlement, Bob endures five years of rock-breaking hard labor on a chain gang before an accountant at Borden's company confesses to the $5000 theft in a suicide note.
Remorseful for having wrongly accused his employee and robbing him of five years of his life, Borden goes out of his way to try and reconcile his sins by inviting the newly-sprung Bob Terry to live with him in his mansion. He even hands Bob the combination to the house safe, giving the resentful ex-con the perfect opportunity to exact revenge on the man who sent him to prison.
The Outer Gate is a dark tale of vengeance and atonement from the prolific studios of Monogram Pictures. Ralph Morgan plays tycoon John Borden with cool assurance. A stalwart character actor for over two decades, he is today best remembered as the brother of Frank Morgan, whose claim to fame is playing the title role in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Actress Kay Linaker appeared in many films in the 30s and 40s, including Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Drums Along The Mohawk (1939) and four Charlie Chan films.