The House Is on Fire

Richmond, Virginia, 1811. During the winter social season, the city's only theater hosts two plays nightly to accommodate crowds seeking entertainment. On the night after Christmas, over six hundred people fill the theater, including Sally Henry Campbell, a recently widowed woman in the third-floor boxes; Cecily Patterson in the colored gallery; Jack Gibson, a young stagehand hoping for permanent employment; and Gilbert Hunt, a blacksmith dreaming of bringing his wife to the theater once he can purchase her freedom. When the theater catches fire during the performance, these four individuals make split-second decisions that will alter their own lives and those of many others. In the days following the disaster, as news spreads across the United States, their paths become permanently connected. Based on the true story of Richmond's theater fire, this historical fiction explores how great tragedy can offer moments of redemption.