Carmina talks to the dead since she was a child. She lives in a world of darkness where the regret and the desire for her revenge kept her in the depths of a dead home, haunted by feelings as black as the coal that can be found in the mines of Coahuila.

In a mantel she embroiders with black hair the names of the Calderón family, who she hates. In the center of it, stands out the name El Cura, a priest from the past who for her it is not worth to even mention his name.

When her sister, Ada, dies, she has no other option than to turn to her past, meet up with her relatives, and try to reconstruct her story. On the other hand, the death of various miners in Pasta de Conchos bring up in Bernardo, Carmina's nephew, the memories of poverty and the anger of injustice that he will try to recompose through his work as a journalist.

In this novel, Mónica Castellanos retraces the journey to hell, including the personal ones, like Carmina's and Bernardo's, as well as those of the miners who died due to the negligence of many and who, once again, were buried in the shadows.