One of America's most famous - and most deadly - labor strikes occurred in The Copper Country of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula in 1913, and its major events are described through the eyes of 16-year-old Emilia Rytilahti. Emilia and her younger sister Heli are first-generation American-born Finns who see and personally experience the prejudice of the era against their family and their kinsmen. Emilia comes of age as her world of Copper Island, indeed, the entire Keweenaw Peninsula is shattered during the year of one of the most tumultuous strikes in the history of the labor movement. In the quest for a metal that was mined in its purest natural form ever discovered on earth, eyesight ... arms and legs ... family ... friendship ... community ... dignity ... and life itself are defined and destroyed in Shaft Number Two.