Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Canada, 1901. Willie MacLean is a 10-year-old boy with a love for horses and liking to school to cape the difficult times his family has. Willie's stern, but benevolent father is a coal miner in a local mine along with his older brother John. But when Willie's father is injured and John is killed in an accident at the mine, Willie is forced to step into his brother's shoes to support his older sister Nelle, and two younger sisters until their father recovers. Willie soon finds work at the mine lonely (aka: the pit) and unfriendly in which he forms a bond with a pit pony horse in order to make it though each day.
Richard Donat
Rory MacLean
Ben Rose-Davis
Willie MacLean
Jennie Raymond
Nellie MacLean
Andrew Keilty
John MacLean
Elliot Page
Maggie MacLean (as Ellen Philpotts-Page)
Anna Wedlock
Sara MacLean
Gabriel Hogan
Ned Hall
Denny Doherty
Charley McGinnis
Jonathan Langlois-Sadubin
Simon O'Neill
Joseph Wynne
Jimmy O'Neill
Carol Sinclair
Mrs. O'Neill
Bill McFadden
Ed O'Neill
Jeremy Akerman
Mr. Frawley
Andrew Bigelow
Ben Frawley
John Dunsworth
MacIsaac Smith
