Emma Malloy, still sick and weak from the fire that killed her parents, is on her way to Coal River, Pennsylvania. Orphaned and penniless at nineteen, she accepts a train ticket from her aunt and uncle to travel to the rough-hewn community. Once there, she is treated like a servant by her relatives. Emma works for free in the company store. There, miners and their impoverished families must pay inflated prices for food, clothing, and tools, while those who owe money are turned away to starve.
She begins leaving stolen food on families' doorsteps, and marking the miners' bills as paid, she draws the ire of the mine owner and the police. She forms an alliance with a charismatic miner who offers to help her expose the truth. As the lines blur between what is legal and what is just, she must risk everything to follow her conscience.
304 pages
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