Life is incredibly hard for all the immigrant families who work in the mine, but harder still is Hannah's -- her father recently killed in the mine, her mother nearly dead from giving birth to the latest child. Hannah's older sister, the pretty one, isn't much use, and the little ones are too small to do anything but fight with each other.But Hannah's strong as sturdy rope; her dad used to say so himself. She'll defy all convention and pass herself off as a boy to get into the mine that is their only real hope of salvation. Common wisdom is that women are bad luck in a mine, so when her secret is discovered, the superstitious miners are furious. Will she survive this too?