To support her ailing coal miner father disabled with black lung disease, and her young son, a divorcee leaves her low-paying job as a waitress in the local diner to seek employment in the mines and struggles to retain her dignity while encountering harassment, humiliation, a near rape -- and expuls

To support her ailing coal miner father disabled with black lung disease, and her young son, a divorcee leaves her low-paying job as a waitress in the local diner to seek employment in the mines and struggles to retain her dignity while encountering harassment, humiliation, a near rape -- and expulsion from the church choir. Filmed entirely on location in eastern Kentucky, the movie initially was titled "Women in the Mines."