Many people in the industrial town's suburbs have very difficult lives. They have almost nothing — no money, no food, no clothes, no work. It is seldom that a few of them earn some money. People from Kakanj, Bosnia, survive in a really interesting way. They gather the remaining coal from the coal mine. They have a chance after the machinery is done with the work. There are a lot of charcoal burners, buyers are the rarity. There is only fog, mud, cold and doubt.. Tbe old rnen and children who dig coal, each day, from dawn to dusk, all have the same drearns and the same wishes. Coal is their life. This is a story about some of thern. The main character is a 15-year-old boy. He has been gathering coal for the past five years. His older brother lives in the United States.