It's 1972 in a small mining town of northeast Pennsylvania.  MARK wearily makes his way to the Rolling Hills Strip Mine to begin a backbreaking twelve-hour work day with his fellow miners under the supervision of JOEY, assistant foreman and Mark's domineering older brother.  Working under harsh conditions with mining buddies KELLY (comic relief and loud-mouthed) and DUTCH (soft-spoken and gentle whom only Kelly understands), Mark keeps his loftier goals private.  Every night after dinner at home with MOTHER, the widowed tough-loving matriarch, Joey, and his sweet wife, ASHLEY, Mark secretly escapes from his blue-collar life to visit MR. CLEMENS, retired English professor and reclusive novelist.

Clemens has fallen into a deep depression after the recent death of his wife, numbing himself with prescription drugs and wine. Having never been close to his now-deceased father, Mark has developed a father-son relationship with his former professor and assists Clemens with proofing his latest novel in a series of hack adventure stories written under the pseudonym Darren Van Hanna.  At the same time, Clemens assists Mark with his own manuscript that mirrors his life's trials and tribulations, including his secret love of Ashley, with whom he is spending more and more time with as his brother spends more time at work.

At the Beer Garden, a local bar and eatery catering primarily to miners under the proprietorship of PETE, Mark discovers that instead of being busy at work, Joey is having an affair with THELMA, Pete’s daughter and fellow waitress of Kelly’s perpetually pregnant wife PEGGY.  This leads to a brotherly confrontation that ripples through the entire family.

Will Mark escape his blue-collar destiny by writing a best-selling novel?  Can Clemens escape his haunting past and survive his own self-loathing?  Will Mark’s love for Ashley become known, or will Joey’s adultery tear a family apart?  As personal secrets are revealed and relationships change, a devastating tragedy will prove the end for some and a new beginning for others.