Self-proclaimed ex-poet, Seymour, has taken a job in a coal mine, to make some money and still the voice that is ever re-arranging words in his head. But soon enough he finds himself trying to attract the attention of truck driver Chloe by claiming to his workmates: "The right poem will seduce any woman" This gambit leads him to write a poem for the bully Big Joel, to bring Big Joel's wife, Ellen, back to him. And so begins the story of a group of battling coal miners, affected by 'the word' and destined to find out what happens when imagination fails.