"If America was a melting pot, Butte seemed to be its boiling point," observes Morrie Morgan, the itinerant teacher and inveterate charmer who stole readers' hearts in "The Whistling Season." A decade later, he steps off the train and into the copper mining capital of the world in its jittery 1919 heyday. While the riches of "the Richest Hill on Earth" may elude him, once again a colorful cast of local characters seek him out. Before long, Morrie is caught up in the clash between the ironfisted Anaconda Mining Company, radical "outside agitators," and the beleaguered miners. As tensions build aboveground and below, Morrie finds a unique way to give a voice to those who truly need one.