McKinnon County, North Carolina, is the source for 90 percent of the tech industry's most important mineral-the high purity quartz (HPQ) used to make silicon chips. It is a global business monopolized by a handful of foreign mining companies making billions while leaving the county mostly poor and ignorant. McKinnonn County, where nearly every family is related by blood or marriage, and outsiders are as feared as democrats. But when a mining company whistleblower is murdered, McKinnon County is forced to reckon with its horrible past.