Frank Keany is the chief engineer of a uranium mine located under the overwhelming sun of New Mexico and owned by a woman, Moira Warden. She suspects her ex-husband want to take possession of the mine.

An adaptation of Émile Zola’s 1877 masterpiece L’assommoir, the film is an uncompromising depiction of a lowly laundress’s struggles to deal with an alcoholic husband while running her own business.