Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding is an inmate serving a life sentence at Shawshank State Penitentiary. Red is the man who can "get things," and it's through this reputation that he first meets Andy Dufresne, a banker who is sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murder of his wife and her lover — a crime he insists he didn't commit. At first, Andy keeps to himself, but over time he forms a close friendship with Red. Using his banking skills, Andy starts to offer financial advice to the guards and eventually the new warden, Sam Norton. This wins him certain privileges, but also makes him valuable to the prison staff. He begins expanding the prison library and begins to launder dirty money. One day, a young inmate named Tommy Williams joins Shawshank and reveals that an inmate from another prison had confessed to the murders Andy was convicted of. Andy hopes this will be his ticket to freedom. However, Warden Norton, fearful of losing his financial expert, refuses to act on this new information. When Andy threatens to stop assisting the warden with his illicit money schemes, Norton throws Andy into solitary. One day, Andy finds that Norton has transferred Tommy to another prison. Andy has no choice but to continue helping the warden with his dirty money. Devastated but resolute, Andy continues his plan, one he had been working on for years. He has been digging a tunnel from his cell to the outside world, using a rock hammer provided by Red and covering the hole with a poster of Rita Hayworth. When the tunnel is complete, Andy escapes. Red, later paroled, writes a manuscript about his time in prison. He remembers Andy speaking fondly of a specific beach in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Following clues left by Andy, Red violates his parole and forms a plan to go to Mexico, He hopes his friend is there, and that they can be free together.