Margaret MacNeil doesn't mind being called a snot-nosed whore â in fact she likes being an outcast, swearing like a man and making it clear she will never marry a coal-miner. She's already lost her father and a brother to the mines, and her mother, a fountain of black humor, is equally determined to keep Margaret safe.

Then one day Neil Currie staggers into their lives, a gentle, bagpipe-playing giant of a man. Margaret takes him home, falls in love, and marries him because he vows to stay away from the mines. But he can't keep his promise. When tragedy strikes, Margaret reacts with a macabre act of defiance.