Margaret's Museum

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

In a dramatic departure from her typically corseted and powdered roles, Carter portrays Margaret, a rebellious, unkempt young woman living in a remote Nova Scotia mining community. The beautiful seaside scenery makes a sharp contrast to the dark dangers of “the pit” (the mines), which has already claimed the lives of her father and brother and ushered her grandfather into the deadly grip of black lung disease. Bitter and resentful of the hold the pit has on the company town, Margaret is determined to break free. She marries Neil Currie (Russell), a tall, gentle, bagpipe player, and the couple move as far out of town as possible into a ramshackle house atop a cliff. Unable to make ends meet, Neil has to go to work in the mines to supplement Margaret's salary as a hospital scrubwoman. When tragedy strikes, Margaret suffers a mental breakdown, but in protest of the atrocious mining conditions, she creates a macabre museum dedicated to the suffering of the miners and their families.