The Mineral Palace explores the healing and destructive powers of love, family and motherhood, while telling the Depression-era story of Bena Jonssen, wife of a philandering physician and mother of a seven week-old son, who moves with her family from St. Paul, Minnesota, to the dusty, railroad town of Pueblo, Colorado. Bena takes a job as the society reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain, but quickly tires of the activities of the women's civic service organizations. She turns her attention to the city's brothels, and, befriending a pregnant prostitute, attempts to uncover the baby's paternity. Surrounded by the secrets and decay of the town, Bena begins a love affair with Red Withers, a rancher and social outcast, as she exposes the truths about a prominent Pueblo family, and the truths about her own life.