Burden of Truth

Anger over the claim against the mill pits the sick girls and their families against employees of the mill who worry that their jobs are on the line. When the local Pastor’s daughter becomes afflicted with the illness, he blames the girls themselves. Parents begin keeping their healthy kids home from school, so to quell the mounting hysteria, the High School Principal cracks down on the affected girls and prevents them from attending their prom. Joanna fires back at the school, but victory eludes her. When the kids decide to throw a prom of their own, Billy and Joanna are made honorary prom king and queen. However, the moment is over-shadowed by the mill’s answer to her claim – they’ve hired her father’s law firm to represent them and they plan to annihilate her.

Convinced that the local steel mill and its owner, Ben Matheson, are responsible for the barrels Joanna and Billy go after him but don’t have enough to make the allegation stick. When her father shows up and persuades her that Ben’s offer to clean the field is the best deal she’s going to get, Joanna decides to pack up to return home. However, a shocking revelation in her personal life leads her to question everything her father has ever told her. Joanna resigns from her father’s firm and in a knee-jerk reaction, files a statement of claim against the mill.

Big city lawyer Joanna Hanley, passed over for promotion, returns to her hometown to settle what she thinks will be a simple case, a group of girls suffering from a mysterious illness, against her big-pharma client.