Will Givens was one of two survivors of the 1981 explosion that killed fifty-two eastern Kentucky men in the Harlan #7 coal mine. But Will carries a terrible secret hidden from all about the tragedy that occurred after the explosion under Black Mountain. When he comes home twenty years later to face his past, he tips a delicate balance that will result in a second disaster that is worse than the first. As his life entwines with a grandmother whose grief has imprisoned her, a beautiful young woman who carries a terrible secret of her own, and a mentally handicapped boy who carves coal statutes, he's unaware of the dangerthat the boy holds the key to it all. Will he figure that out before it's too late?