In the midst of a labour dispute at a Newfoundland fluorspar mine, fourteen-year-old Ron faces large challenges of his own - a sick and angry father, a school project on the difficult history of mining in his community, and his new feelings for girls on both sides of the picket line. As Ron learns of the difficult history of a mining town, he starts to understand what his father is going through, and he begins to sort through his own complicated and conflicting feelings about whose side he's on, and who's there with him.