In 1931 the rains stopped and the "black blizzards" began. Powerful dust storms carrying millions of tons of stinging, blinding black dirt swept across the Southern Plains - the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, western Kansas, and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. This American Experience film presents the remarkable story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease - even death - for nearly a decade.