A worker dies suspiciously while cleaning augers at an animal food pellet factory, bringing two years of intricately tangled relationships to light. Davey-a naive aspiring tattoo artist with romantic feelings for the dead man's wife-pleads his innocence despite being the only worker present during the accident. The factory owners--a pair of estranged brothers feuding over their late father's estate--are only concerned with how this incident will interfere with their plans to sell the struggling factory. Meanwhile, the dead man's wife, Grace, finds herself relieved to have finally escaped the tumultuous relationship she has been trapped in for years. Moving back and forth in time to reveal how their respective stories converge, Dead Peasants is a darkly comic thriller that examines greed, dependency and culpability in a desolate prairie town.