Little Fires Everywhere

The novel's central mystery—who set the fire that destroys the Richardson house—is resolved as being Izzy, the youngest and most rebellious Richardson child. After Mia and Pearl are forced to move out (Elena discovers that Pearl's name was used at an abortion clinic for Lexie's abortion, and this, combined with her investigation into Mia's past, prompts her to evict them), Izzy is devastated to find the rental house empty when she goes looking for Mia, the one adult who ever really saw her. Feeling that her siblings have each used and betrayed Pearl, and consumed by rage and grief, Izzy pours gasoline on each of her siblings' beds and sets the house on fire, not realizing her mother Elena is still inside. Elena escapes unharmed.

Before leaving town, Mia has quietly left behind photographs for each Richardson child, images with personal significance chosen specifically for them, a final act of connection and understanding despite everything that happened. Mia and Pearl then leave Shaker Heights for good, with Mia planning to finally reconnect with her own estranged parents and to help Pearl find her biological father, the truth about her origins having already been revealed to Pearl (Mia had once been a surrogate for a wealthy couple, the Ryans, but could not go through with giving up her baby and fled with Pearl instead).

The custody battle over the little girl at the heart of the town's other central conflict resolves outside the courts: after losing her legal case, Bebe Chow, inspired by something Mia said to her, sneaks into the McCulloughs' home and takes back her biological daughter, May Ling (whom the McCulloughs had been raising as Mirabelle), fleeing with her to Guangzhou, China. The McCulloughs spend a fortune searching for them without success, and eventually move forward with approval to adopt a different baby from China instead.

In the aftermath, Izzy runs away from home, having taken the contact information for Mia's parents, determined to keep running rather than ever be forced back into her old life. The book closes with Elena Richardson, whose life had been built on order, rules, and control, confronting the realization that her worst fear—losing her daughter—has actually come to pass, and vowing to spend the rest of her life searching for Izzy.

The novel opens with the Richardson house on fire and spends the rest of the book telling you who lit it. The series gives a different answer.

In Ng's novel Izzy does it alone: she pours gasoline on each of her siblings' beds and lights them, not realising her mother is still in the house, and then runs to Pittsburgh with the name of Mia's parents — leaving Elena to spend the rest of her life looking for her daughter. On screen Izzy sets fire only to her own room, and her family puts it out. What burns the house down is the other three. Lexie, Moody and Trip decide to do it themselves, deliberately, because they have worked out that they do not want to end up like their mother. And when the investigator asks Elena who is behind the arson, she takes the whole thing on herself. The series then closes on something the novel does not have: Elena alone in the empty rental house, finding the miniature Mia left her — Shaker with a birdcage at its centre, and inside it the cardinal's feather Izzy had kept since she was small.