Content Warning: This section of the guide references family trauma and grief, child abuse, domestic violence, and suicidal ideation.

At age nine, Alice Hart sits at her writing desk and dreams of ways to set her father on fire. Her dad, Clem, is physically abusive to Alice and her mother Agnes. Clem has mood swings, so he is sometimes sweet and other times violent. Agnes is pregnant; her due date is soon.

Alice talks with her dog Toby and reads about fire myths. Fire can remake things. Alice wishes she could give her dad a rebirth through fire so he would always be kind.

In their countryside home with a garden, her father has a shed Alice has never been inside. Since her parents are at a doctor’s appointment, she and Toby investigate the shed. Alice finds many “beautiful” wood carvings of a young girl, the girl’s mother, and an older woman with various flowers. She sets the lantern down and grabs several of the carvings, planning to burn them.

When a storm kicks up, Alice and Toby flee toward the house as her parents arrive home. Clem is angry that Agnes let the doctor touch her when she stumbled, and he becomes more furious when he sees Alice with his carvings.