Lily Queen

On the afternoon of March 25, 1911, hundreds of young girls working on the tenth floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City were involved in a gruesome tragedy when the building caught fire and it was discovered that most of the exits had been locked, trapping them inside. In order to escape the encroaching flames, the women jumped out of windows, or sought other, equally terrifying, ways out of the inferno. Images of fellow factory workers’ bodies lying crushed on the pavement or impaled on the sharp, wrought-iron fence that encircled the building’s perimeter would forever remain vividly etched in the minds of the fortunate few who made it out alive. Not willing to let such a tragedy go unpunished, the survivors sought justice for their fallen comrades by taking the factory owners, whose carelessness had instigated the tragedy, to court in order to hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity, putting them in the spotlight for allowing their businesses’ profit margins to overshadow the value of their worker’s lives. Now, over ninety years later, Lily Howe, the daughter of one of the surviving factory girls, stands to inherit her grandfather’s estate. She soon discovers that her mother’s old bedroom has been left unchanged since the day of her death, and, for Lily, its existence provides an opportunity for a glimpse into her mother’s mysterious past. What Lily uncovers is the incredible story of a beautiful factory worker who climbed New York’s social ladder all the way to the top, achieving great measures of both wealth and fame. Yet the tragedy of that horrific fire lived on within her, jeopardizing her one chance for true happiness.