Twelve-year-old Hazel and her family just want to live a peaceful life in Chicago. The Civil War has ended, and after the burning of Black churches pushes them out of their native Virginia, they're finally beginning to settle into a cabin built with their own hands in Chicago.

But then the fires begin. At first the fires are distant and short-lived. But as the days pass, the wildfires of the hot summer of 1871 come closer and closer, until flames are dancing at their cabin door.

Suddenly, Hazel and her younger brother are torn away from their parents, the home they worked so hard to build in flames. All that Hazel has left is her will to survive the night, protect her brother, and find her family. But will her hopes be buried in the wreckage of the blaze, or will her inner strength prove to be fireproof?