Albert Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall) is the most famous hangman in Britain. He is calm, unsmiling, and extremely particular about his professional ethics. He is known as "the most efficient and humane first hangman in the world." This profession requires the secrecy of identity, absolute calmness, and precise calculations. Professional decisiveness and speed have created a record of 7 and a half seconds for him to complete the execution. However, this identity, which should have been a secret, has made Pierrepoint a public figure because of the execution of the Nazis. Pierrepoint never confuses his career with his life, and rarely considers the cruelty of this profession. Until one day in 1950, he personally "sent off" his friend James Corbett (Eddie Marsan), causing his spirit to almost collapse. This became a turning point in Pierrepoint's career. He wrote a letter in 1955 to resign from his job as a hangman, ending this 22-year life and death business of executing 608 death row prisoners.