In 1907, sitting in the heart of the small mining town of Babcock, West Virginia, lies Red Hollow No. 2 Mine, like a hungry devourer awaiting the many poor souls that filter through its entrance to claim as its own. An odd little family of five tonnage men carry out their back-breaking workload in the black depths with firedamp explosions and the crushing weight of rock and earth being the only fears that they know. Soon, as they dig their way deeper inside the mountain, the crew realizes that there are things down there that are far worse than any mine mishap. When digging coal seams soon turns to digging graves, Benjamin, the young boy of fourteen in the crew, is faced with the cold, harsh reality of just how expendable and little the life of a coal miner is to those that blindly ignore the dangers awaiting inside.