Michael is a miner. But it's no life for a man. He exhausts himself working two jobs, to send his son Luke to school, so he won't have to be a miner too. Down the pit one day he finds a seam of gold. If he gets it out, he can save his own life, and Luke's. But his workmate has other ideas. Gripping, powerful and intense - a novel about England in the heat of the industrial revolution.