Act I
The musical tells the story of Floyd Collins during the Kentucky Cave Wars, a period where poor landowners in Kentucky were exploiting the caves found on their land in an attempt to draw business and tourism to the area that was later taken by the federal government to create Mammoth Cave National Park. The show opens with a prologue, "The Ballad of Floyd Collins," in which those close to Floyd introduce the audience to the setting and the character.
On a brisk January day, Floyd enters Sand Cave, a cave on his neighbor's property, hopeful that he will find a cavern large enough to turn into a tourist attraction and turn his family’s fortunes around ("The Call"). He expertly navigates narrow and difficult passages, using his voice and its echo to determine where to go next. Eventually, he does come upon such a cavern. Overjoyed, he yodels into the space, harmonizing with his own echo—but since the cavern is too large for his lantern to illuminate fully, he can only speculate about the wonders it holds ("It Moves").
Floyd begins to make his way out of the cavern, excited to tell everyone what he's found and work on making it accessible to the public ("Time to Go"). But as he heads out headfirst, a rock falls on his foot, trapping him inside a tunnel so narrow that he can't even move his arms, let alone shift the rock. He calls for help, but is too far below ground for anyone to hear.
The next day, a local teenager named Jewell Estes finds Floyd's jacket outside the cave he was exploring and tells the locals. He and two other locals—Bee Doyle, on whose land Floyd has been exploring, and Ed Bishop, a fellow caver—speculate that Floyd must have found something big down there. And if Floyd's gotten himself stuck? Well, it'll probably turn out fine. After all, each of the three other men has been in similar scrapes and survived ("'Tween a Rock and a Hard Place").
When the Collins family learns that Floyd is trapped, Floyd's father Lee is certain it's only a matter of someone being able to get down there and help him. As the men try to strategize, Miss Jane (Lee's wife and Floyd's stepmother) confides to Nellie (Floyd's sister) that Floyd recently told her about a dream he had about being trapped. Nellie, who has recently returned home from a mental asylum and who has a special connection with Floyd, tells Miss Jane that Floyd's gotten out of worse scrapes than this, and they shouldn't worry ("Lucky").
In some versions, Floyd's family and fellow cavers discuss Floyd's love of exploring and the dangers involved ("Where A Man Belongs" in place of "'Tween a Rock and a Hard Place".
Floyd's younger brother Homer goes down into Sand Cave to try to free him, but Homer can't even reach his head. It becomes clear that Floyd's rescue will not be as easy as anyone had hoped, and Floyd begins to panic. To soothe him, Homer reminds him of the nights they've spent in caves together before, and promises Floyd that he'll spend tonight with him as well ("Daybreak").
William Burke "Skeets" Miller, a cub reporter for the Louisville Courier, arrives on the scene, having been dispatched to investigate whether Floyd’s entrapment is a hoax. Being small and slender, he is able to squeeze all the way through to Floyd ("I Landed on Him"). Though he's terrified by the experience, he feels deep empathy for Floyd and joins the rescue effort. H.T. Carmichael, a local engineer, suggests fastening a harness around Floyd so they can pull him out, even if it means ripping his foot off.
As Skeets (the only one who's been able to make it all the way down to Floyd, fastens the harness around Floyd's torso, Floyd distracts himself by wondering whether he'll find love when he gets out ("And She'd Have Blue Eyes"). The pulling begins, but the harness idea is quickly discarded, as it hurts Floyd enough that he thinks it might kill him.
Lee becomes increasingly distressed. Miss Jane tells him that she loves his children as her own, and they will get through this together ("Heart and Hand").
Skeets goes down into Sand Cave again, both to continue his efforts to dig around Floyd's body in hopes of reaching the rock that's trapped his foot, and to tell Floyd that his articles about the entrapment have been syndicated nationwide. He asks Floyd for an interview so he can quote him directly, and the two men bond as they converse. Floyd confesses that he's afraid he might die in this cave. Skeets swears to free him.
Aboveground, outsiders begin showing up, including a filmmaker who instantly becomes interested in putting Homer on the silver screen, and a doctor from Chicago who tells the family that amputating Floyd's leg to get him out would result in enough blood loss that he would probably die anyway. H.T. Carmichael takes charge of the rescue operation, declaring that nobody is to go into the cave again without his prior approval. But Homer, having just learned from Skeets about how much digging progress has been made, sneaks past him and goes down to see Floyd again.
Homer digs by hand, attempting to widen the passageway Floyd is trapped in. As he works, Floyd becomes increasingly annoyed at the slowness of the progress. To distract Floyd and keep his spirits up, Homer plays a riddle game with him, in which the answers are all good memories from their shared childhood ("The Riddle Song"). By the end of the song, Homer has widened the passageway enough that he can squeeze through, and the brothers are able to embrace.
Act II
As Skeets Miller’s stories about Floyd draw national attention, legions of new reporters arrive, not just sniffing around for news but exaggerating every detail they find, in hopes that sensationalism will sell more papers (“Is That Remarkable?”)
By the next Sunday, tens of thousands of people from around the country have arrived at Bee Doyle’s farm in hopes of seeing Floyd get rescued. Even the Collinses get swept up in “The Carnival”—Nellie dances with performers and gawkers, Lee sells photos of Floyd for a dollar apiece, and Homer starts getting offers to appear on the vaudeville stage.
Below ground, as Skeets tells Floyd about what’s happening above, he tries to use a jack to pry the rock off Floyd’s foot... but fails. As Skeets leaves the cave for what will turn out to be the last time, a collapse in the passageway cuts Floyd off completely from his would-be rescuers.
When Nellie learns about the collapse, she becomes upset that she may never see her brother again, and dreams of freeing him (“Through the Mountain”).
Meanwhile, a divide in rescue strategy, the presence of an overwhelming amount of media, and the arrival of the National Guard deepens the tension between the locals and outsiders. Since the collapse has rendered the cave impassable, engineer Carmichael announces plans to dig a shaft down to Floyd. Homer, who opposes this plan, tells Carmichael that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Carmichael orders Homer removed from the rescue site, which causes Homer to angrily reflect on whether he even belongs at home anymore (“Git Comfortable”).
(In the 2025 Broadway production: Below ground, entirely isolated, Floyd finally comes up with an answer to a question Skeets asked him days ago. Skeets had asked what Floyd finds appealing about cave exploration; Floyd now describes the awe he feels when he explores caves. He imagines their long history, dating back to ancient times, and imagines himself a part of that history (“It Moves”).)
As torrential rain slows progress on the Carmichael shaft, the mood aboveground becomes increasingly despondent. As the locals begin to talk about Floyd in the past tense, Homer begins seriously considering whether he should accept a vaudeville offer so he can tell Floyd’s story (“The Ballad of Floyd Collins” (Reprise)).
Skeets Miller works in the Carmichael shaft, digging laterally in hopes of finally reaching Floyd. As he does so, he calls out to Floyd, but is unsure about whether he’s really hearing a response. He apologizes for the part he played in turning Floyd from a human being into a media sensation.
Floyd has a joyful vision of himself being reunited with Nellie, Homer, and everyone else (“The Dream”). In this vision, Sand Cave has been developed and turned into a successful tourist attraction, and people have begun hailing Floyd as “the greatest caver ever known.” But when he yodels as he did when he first discovered the place, hoping to show off the beautiful echoes he heard there, his voice doesn’t echo back. This breaks the vision, and Floyd realizes not only that he is still trapped, but that he is about to die.
Skeets informs the audience that by the time the shaft reached Floyd, he had already died of starvation and exhaustion.
As he faces death head-on, Floyd wonders aloud what heaven might be like, and hopes he’ll be reunited with his deceased mother (“How Glory Goes”). As he dies, he yodels into the cave again. This time, his voice echoes back.
