Is Tommy guilty of his uncle's murder at the hands of anti-union detectives? He thinks so, and the guilt plunges him into despair. His life becomes as dark as the coal mine where he works to support his mother.
In the blackness of the mine, Tommy teaches himself to play the guitar; soon he's performing at parties and dances in coal-mining towns throughout eastern Utah. One Christmas Eve, he meets lovely Eugenie, the mine owner's daughter, and writes a song for her. The two sixteen-year-olds fall in love, but because Tommy is a lowly laborer in the mine, Eugenie decides they should keep their meetings secret.
After union songwriter Joe Hill is convicted of murder in an unfair trial, Tommy is asked to be Joe's successor, to write the powerful, pro-union songs that will rally working men and women to the union cause. Tommy is torn -- if he accepts, he'll lose his job in the mine and he may lose Eugenie; if he refuses, he'll be turning away from the people he's worked with since he was eleven years old.
Riding on a train to Chicago where he'll sing at Joe Hill's funeral, Tommy reviews the crucial events of his life, from his Uncle Jim's death to his love for Eugenie to his last, memorable meeting with Joe Hill. As he sings his final tribute at the funeral, it becomes clear to Tommy what he wants to do with his life.
Many of the events in these pages actually happened, including early labor unrest, the two murder trials, and the dramatic execution of Joe Hill.
Gloria Skurzynski says, "As we live and work in the Internet Age, we forget that a century ago, most people earned their daily bread through hard manual labor. All across the U.S., union organizers roused workers to strike for safer conditions and higher wages. In the West, songwriter Joe Hill achieved his wish to become a martyr for the union cause. Perhaps Joe finally found that 'pie in the sky,' a phrase he coined that we still use today."