Jeremy Prine is 17 and has just lost his mother to cancer. In her last letter to him, she told him to go find his uncle, the brother of his long-dead father, and stay with him no matter what. His uncle has something, his mother wrote, that she couldn't give him and Jeremy has something she could not give his uncle.
Jeremy takes off in search of his uncle and finds him in a mining outfit under the nickname, Snake. Snake carries guilt and severe burns from the accident that took the life of Jeremy's father and he does not welcome Jeremy's intrusion into his routine. Jeremy gets a job at the mine in an attempt to get closer to his uncle and to prove his manhood. The work bulks up his frame and helps him ease into manhood.