Set in late-1920s Sydney Mines, Us & Them is the story of sixteen-year-old JW Donaldson, who interrupts his high school education to work in the coal mine to help support his family.

A fatal accident in the mine awakens JW to just how dangerous working conditions are and to how management seems to care more about production than about the men and boys who are the means of that production.

JW enlists the aid of union activist and local hero, JB McLachlan, and learns that even the young can be a positive voice for change.