Mia informs Bebe of her daughter's whereabouts, though the McCulloughs refuse to let her see her daughter and threaten her with trespassing. Bebe has been looking for her child for over a year. She tells the story to Mia, who realizes that the child is May Ling Chow, the daughter of Bebe Chow, Mia's co-worker at the Chinese restaurant, who gave up her child in the middle of a postpartum episode and economic hardship. Lexie is enraptured by the little girl and the story of how she was discovered abandoned at a fire station. The Richardsons are invited to the birthday party of Mirabelle McCullough, the adopted daughter of one of Elena's friends. Because of this, Izzy ends up becoming close to Mia and offering to work as her assistant. Mia suggests that Izzy do something about it and ends up giving Izzy the idea to jam all the locks in the school. She ends up meeting Izzy, the black sheep of the family, when Izzy is home on suspension after defending a classmate who was the target of a teacher's racist comments. When Elena condescendingly offers her a job doing light housekeeping for her family, Mia agrees, only to keep an eye on Pearl. She eventually becomes concerned about Pearl's idealization of the Richardsons. Mia works part-time at a Chinese restaurant and sells carefully composed photographs through a dealer in New York. She spends time every day at the Richardson home, and she develops a crush on Trip and comes to idolize Lexie. Pearl, who is used to a transient lifestyle in which her mother scrapes together money, becomes charmed by the Richardsons and their established home.

Pearl and Moody quickly become friends and he introduces her to his siblings, Lexie, Trip and Izzy. Elena's younger son, the teenage Moody, bikes by the house and meets Pearl, who is his own age, and develops a crush on her.

One year previously, in 1997, Elena Richardson rents the upstairs portion of her rental home across town to Mia Warren, an artist, and her teenage daughter, Pearl. The Richardson children believe that the arsonist was their sister, Izzy. Arson is suspected, as there were multiple small fires. N 1998, the Richardson home catches fire. The novel is about two families living in 1990s Shaker Heights who are brought together through their children. You see all of the great things about them, you love them dearly, and yet you also know all of their quirks and their foibles.' She described writing about her hometown as 'a little bit like writing about a relative. It is her second novel and takes place in Shaker Heights, Ohio where Ng grew up.

Little Fires Everywhere is a 2017 novel by American author Celeste Ng.

Author of little fires everywhere