A contemporary story based on the myth of Prometheus, who gave fire to man by stealing it from the Gods. Using Tony Harrison's poem, the film narrates an allegory of man's cursed misuse of fire, power and industry. Miners from a closed pit in England are taken by Hermes, melted into a statue of Prometheus, and taken on a tour of Europe, to the sites of man's worst atrocities. While one old man argues back to Hermes, the statue travels to Dresden, to Auschwitz, to Eastern Europe and finally to Greece.