When nineteen-year-old Alafair Sizemore Slone journeys to Chemame Creek, West Virginia to join her husband, Travis, in the coal camp where he's working, she carries with her a history of loss and the hope of a secure future. She knows that making a home in a coal camp will be difficult and different from life on her family's farm in Washington County, Virginia; but she's certain that she and Travis are equal to any challenge that will come their way.

Travis, however, has changed during the four weeks they've been apart. He goes out after supper and stays out late. He no longer talks about buying a small farm of their own, preferring to spend money as quickly as he earns it. When a mine accident leaves Travis injured with no income and no savings, Alafair is coerced into a decision that will affect her life, her marriage, and the lives of other women in Chemame Creek forever.

Based upon oral histories from women who lived in West Virginia's coal camps during the 1920s and their descendants, The Price of Bread and Shoes examines a controversial piece of West Virginia history through the lens of fiction.