Told by way of a gentle reflective retrospective, we are introduced to the kindly school caretaker "Rhys" (Dafyyd Griffiths), a budding poet, who has an habit of helping out the children at his school when they get into mischief. It's the young "Ifor" (John Davies) that he is currently befriending and it's to him that he tells the story of his youth in this traditional Welsh mining community. He left school at twelve and began his working life underground surrounded by others who all read voraciously in their spare time. An accident below ground and a tragedy above it didn't dampen his…