On her motorbike, Becky Murton drops her friend Tracy off with some other local teenagers, including her brother Dale, and rides on to visit her father Tony, an ex-miner, on the allotment where he now lives. Roy Cotton, manager of the new open cast coal mine, dismisses a newspaper report of local opposition to the new mine.

May, Becky's mother, arrives at a reunion of miners' wives at the Colliery Club, where they watch a video of a march and rally during the 1984 miners' strike. Roy arrives at the club and blunders into the room where the women are meeting, making a hasty exit. The women watch emotionally as the video ends with May making a speech to miners' wives at the end of the strike. May leaves the club to discover Dale involved in an argument with the police. Back inside the club, Roy asks May to dance. Reluctantly, she agrees. May breaks off the dance and rushes into the toilets. She is suffering from an unexpected menopausal bleed.

Dale and other local youths get drunk on some wasteland while their car stereos blast out loud music. The next day, Dale arrives at Roy's office for a job interview. In the town, as the Colliery Band rehearse for the Durham Miners Gala, May and Tony discuss how times have changed since before the strike. Roy drives Dale around the site, and points out the old narrow tunnels where Dale's father and grandfather used to work. May, her friend Jenny, and Becky go to the Durham Miners Gala. As May sits listening to a speech by the Labour MP, Tony Benn, Roy finds her and gives her some flowers. May explains why she had to rush off from the dance.

Back home, Dale tells Becky he has got a job at the open cast mine. Becky tells him that his mother will be upset. May arrives home and she and Dale argue about his new job. May arrives at the nursing home where she works and tells Jenny about Dale's job. Jenny tells May that Belle, Tony's mother, has been asking for her. May takes a cup of tea to Belle, who is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

Roy and May drive out to the countryside for a picnic. Roy tells May that he is Dale's new boss. He takes her to the mine and shows her the old workings. Becky visits Tony and tells him about May and Roy. Tony explains to Becky how the end of the strike broke up the whole community, and not just her parents' marriage.

Dale enjoys his first day at work. May visits the allotment and she and Becky argue about Roy. May discusses with Jenny whether to have a hysterectomy. May visits Roy at the mine and they spend the night together. Roy takes May for a weekend away at a country hotel. When Dale arrives home with his first pay packet, Becky tells him that his girlfriend Tracy is pregnant.

Back at work, Dale crashes a coal truck and loses his job. Roy tells May how his father suffered a long and painful death from pneumoconiosis (miner's lung). He gives May a letter confirming arrangements for a private room at the hospital for her operation. Dismayed, she rejects the offer.

In the hotel bar, Roy meets his boss. May confronts them over the pit closures and their redevelopment plans. Outside the hotel, Roy and May argue. On the drive back from the hotel, May tells Roy their relationship has no future. Beck home, Becky tells May about Dale losing his job and Tracy falling pregnant. May and Jenny organise a street party for the local children. Roy drives round to May's house with some flowers, but changes his mind and drives away. Tony burns down the shed on the allotment.