With twenty-one kids, the Cardinal family is a force of nature. And now, after not being in the same room for decades, they're congregating to celebrate their father, a prospector who discovered the zinc mine their now-deserted hometown in northern Quebec was built around. But as the siblings tell the tales of their feral childhood, we discover that Angele, the only Cardinal with a penchant for happiness, has gone missing- although everyone has pretended not to notice for years. Why the silence? What secrets does the mine hold?

"Originally published in French in 1999 as Les heritiers de la mine by Les Editions XYZ inc"--Title page verso.