Welcome to Miller's Bluff, a dilapidated West Virginia mining town circa 1900, where coal is king and daily life is a struggle. In the midst of his bleak existence, Danny James, a twenty-year-old miner with big dreams and few prospects save his burgeoning relationship with schoolteacher May Stockton is forever on the lookout for a means of escape. When a dispute between the coal workers' union and the mine's ruthless and powerful owner, Joe Garvin, reaches a boiling point, Danny finds himself inexorably drawn into the malevolence of Garvin's world.