The film focuses on the widows left behind from the December 6, 1907, Monongah (W.Va.) mine disaster, still dubbed the worst disaster in American history. On the 6th of Dec., 1907, 361 coal miners, many of them immigrants, perished in the explosion. The four who escaped died of injuries. This mining accident left approximately 250 widows and 1, 000 fatherless children.