The prairies of the Dakotas grew, and thrived, for ages before man made his imprint. They will continue to grow, and to thrive, after all of our monuments to ourselves-both private and public-have blown away as dust. What, then, is eternal? What warrants the attention of our eyes-the eyes that so easily darken? In the early 1970's, a grain elevator explosion radically changes the lives of people in the town of Emery, South Dakota. Leading up to the explosion, one young woman wrestles against family and work responsibilities that pile mercilessly upon her. One teenage girl struggles to emerge from beneath her shrewish mother's thumb. While both are unaware of the danger the grain elevator poses, one is stalked by a threat far greater than the looming explosion.