As Elizabeth nervously faces her first day of teaching, Jack must figure out which doomed miner wrote a personal message on a plank found in the mine.

When the coal company orders the town's widows to move and make way for new miners, Abigail devises a plan to keep the women in their homes.

The arrival of new miners in Coal Valley creates excitement among the townswomen, but Jack regards Billy, Elizabeth's earnest suitor, with suspicion.