On February 3rd, 2023, a Norfolk Southern freight train hauling vinyl chloride and other hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, igniting a fire that forced a mass evacuation and ended in a controlled burn that sent a black plume over the town. The film follows residents describing headaches, rashes, and dead fish in local creeks in the weeks after, alongside footage of the wreckage, the burn, and community meetings where officials try to explain what was released and why. It traces the decisions that preceded the crash, including rail industry lobbying against safety regulations and staffing cuts, and asks who bears responsibility when a company's cost-cutting collides with a town's water supply and air. Interviews with residents, environmental experts, and local officials sit alongside news footage from the disaster's immediate aftermath. The film treats East Palestine as a case study in what happens when regulatory oversight is thin and a corporation controls both the incident and the narrative about its cleanup.