The Sundance-winning story of three young boys living in desperate poverty in a forsaken Missouri town. Houses derelict, farms deserted, storefronts boarded-up. When the coal ran out at the end of World War Two, so did the people. It's a story that can be told all across rural America. Yet a few still live here and amid the squalor and shattered dreams, the camera achieves a relationship with the boys that is startling in its candour and compassion.