In 1870, Ulysses S. Grant is President of the United States, coal is king in Pennsylvania, and slavery is dead. But indentured servitude's final traces remain for those poorest of Europeans desperately seeking a new life in America.

Bip is an orphaned indentured servant living at a coal mining operation. Apparently he is the victim of strange circumstances. The quiet Irish lad has outlived his mother and seeks to find his own standing in a company that has no place for him. At the age of eighteen in the nineteenth century, he is still a boy. The other boys derogatorily refer to him as the "Boy Irish Pup."

Doctor John McKenzie is on his way to California when he stops to see a mentor at The Wilson Mining Operation. Disaster has struck the company, leaving Doctor McKenzie stranded there with no financial means to continue his journey. He meets Wilson employees all too eager to offer him refuge. While their intent seems set on keeping him there, his intent remains to move on with his goal of setting up his new residence in California.

Among the employees and servants of The Wilson Estate, Doctor McKenzie meets young Bip. Locals try to warn Doctor McKenzie that the mining company seems cursed with bad luck. At first he has no intention of staying, but destiny and fate may decide otherwise for him. Bip and the Doctor form an alliance that may just set The Wilson Mining Operation on edge.