Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Canada, 1901. Willie MacLean is a 10-year-old boy with a love for horses and liking to school to cape the difficult times his family has. Willie's stern, but benevolent father is a coal miner in a local mine along with his older brother John. But when Willie's father is injured and John is killed in an accident at the mine, Willie is forced to step into his brother's shoes to support his older sister Nelle, and two younger sisters until their father recovers. Willie soon finds work at the mine lonely (aka: the pit) and unfriendly in which he forms a bond with a pit pony horse in order to make it though each day.
Richard Donat
as Rory MacLean
Ben Rose-Davis
as Willie MacLean
Jennie Raymond
as Nellie MacLean
Andrew Keilty
as John MacLean
Elliot Page
as Maggie MacLean
Anna Wedlock
as Sara MacLean
Gabriel Hogan
as Ned Hall
Denny Doherty
as Charley McGinnis
John Dunsworth
as MacIsaac Smith
