Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how
Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend
and burned the house down.
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive
suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned - from the layout of
the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its
residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena
Richardson, whose guiding principal is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist
and single mother- who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter
Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more
than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring
mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a
disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered
community.
When the Richardsons' friends attempt to
adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically
divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious
of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the
secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating
costs to her own family - and Mia's.
Little Fires Everywhere explores the
weight of long-held secrets and the ferocious pull of motherhood-and the danger
of believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster, or
heartbreak.
