Set in a small coal-mining town in Cape Breton at the beginning of World War II, Down the Coaltown Road is the story of Tomassio, an Italian immigrant who is seized by the police and taken to an interment camp. When Tomassio escapes the camp, his breakout has far-reaching consequences for those close to him — for his wife Anna, who learned in Italy at an early age how to get what she needs from a man; for his son Gelo, who is suddenly the man of the house; for his lover Cathy, who renounced one family for her husband and risks losing another for Tomassio; and for his enemy and Cathy’s husband, Ump, a brash and bigoted man. As the social fabric of Coaltown strains and rends, it’s up to Father Rod MacDonald to mend the pieces and transform individual acts of contrition into shared acts of redemption. Down the Coaltown Road is a rich portrait of loving and yearning.