The Burning People begins with the ending of Mary-Frances's life. Mary-Frances, a beloved mother and wife, takes her last breath in Bent Branch Falls in 1973. Bent Branch Falls is a small Appalachian town that has a way of taking care of those who come to it seeking refuge and freedom. But in the months that follow Mary-Frances's death, the intensity of her late husband, Curtis's, grief begins to challenge the community bonds that anchor the town of Bent Branch Falls to its precarious place on an isolated mountain. Abigail, Curtis and Mary-Frances' only child, is left to her own devices as her father's erratic behavior threatens to throw the entire town into a spiral of entropy.

Populated with odd and vibrant characters, The Burning People is a lyrically rendered southern gothic novel that illuminates the richness of life and all the moments of levity that can take place within it before its expiration.