The Flower Sisters

Written by Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters (2024) is a novel that follows 15-year-old Daisy Flowers’s discovery of a historic explosion at a dance hall that took place in her grandmother’s town 50 years ago. As Daisy investigates and uncovers various secrets from that night, the full impact of the tragedy on the community and the Flowers family is revealed. The Flower Sisters is Anderson’s debut novel and is based on the story of the Bond Dance Hall explosion in her hometown of West Plains, Missouri, in 1928.

This guide refers to the 2024 Kindle edition by Kensington Publishing.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of child death, death by suicide, rape, addiction, racism, graphic violence, sexual violence, and physical abuse.

Plot Summary

In the prologue, a dance hall explodes on August 13, 1928, killing a number of people in Possum Flats, Missouri. Among the dead is 19-year-old Violet Flowers, who attended the dance at her twin sister’s urging. Her date, local playboy Paul “Dash” Emmonds, survives after being pulled out by one of the attendees, James “Jimmy” Jeffers.

In May 1978, 15-year-old Daisy Flowers comes to spend the summer with her grandmother, Rose Flowers, in Possum Flats, Missouri. Daisy’s mother, Violet “Lettie” Flowers, has gone to California with her new boyfriend and has promised to collect Daisy at the end of the summer. Daisy dislikes living with her grandmother, whom she barely knows, and she is also uncomfortable with the fact that Rose runs a funeral home, a business inherited from her husband and his family.

Rose receives the former mayor’s body to prepare for his funeral. Daisy learns from Rose that the mayor was having an affair and died while in his lover’s bed. Desperate to do something meaningful with her time in Possum Flats, she trades this information with Fence McMillan, the editor and publisher of the local paper, The Picayune, in exchange for a summer internship. However, word spreads about the mayor’s indiscretion, and someone plays a prank with the mayor’s body, inserting a paper fan in his pocket to make it appear that he has an erection. Dash, who is now the town preacher, is infuriated by this desecration. Rose scolds her granddaughter for this indiscretion but calms down when Daisy apologizes. Rose later determines that 15-year-old Joe Nichols, the adopted son of Dash’s younger daughter, was responsible for the prank.

Daisy begins her internship at The Picayune and is initially disappointed to be assigned the obituary section. However, Fence is so impressed with Daisy’s work that he assigns her a regular column: a retrospective that revisits important moments in the town’s history from 50 years ago. While researching for her piece, Daisy comes across an article about the dance hall explosion and is shocked to discover the name “Violet Flowers” on the list of the deceased. She realizes that her grandmother had a twin sister and decides to do the retrospective on this incident, interviewing survivors for their stories.

Daisy’s idea is met with resistance; Fence only reluctantly agrees to it, and Jimmy, who is now the police chief and the first name on Daisy’s list of potential interviewees, refuses outright to speak to her. Even Rose is furious when Daisy confronts her about Violet’s existence. Rose initially refuses to talk about her sister, but she eventually lets slip a few details, including the fact that the only way to tell Rose and Violet apart was by a violet birthmark on the base of Violet’s neck. Rose also reveals that Violet was wild and independent; many people believed that she deserved to die because of her lifestyle. Violet had also become pregnant outside of marriage, a detail that only Rose had been privy to.

Joe Nichols turns up at The Picayune, having heard about Daisy’s column, and offers to help. In the cemetery, he shows her the memorial for the victims of the explosion, and Daisy invites him to work on the articles with her. He takes Daisy to speak with Hazel Hodges née Samson, the postmistress in Possum Flats and one of the survivors. Hazel describes her experience, including her memory of being pulled to safety by Jimmy, and her story becomes the first part of Daisy’s four-part series on the dance hall explosion.

After Hazel’s account is published and names Jimmy a “hero,” he privately reflects on the fact that he was responsible for the explosion; he set it off in anger after being insulted by his dance date, but he never intended to hurt anyone, let alone kill so many people. Jimmy has never told anyone else the truth; instead, he has spent his entire life trying to make up for all the harm he caused, from pulling numerous people to safety on the night of the explosion to joining the police force and dedicating his life to serving the town.

Despite Joe’s needling, Dash refuses to talk to Daisy; he is disturbed by the memories that Daisy’s questions bring up—both of the explosion and the scandalous life that he lived prior to the incident. Daisy’s second article features the story of Smiley, the photographer at The Picayune. He was present at the dance hall that night and helped a journalist to navigate the landscape following the accident, which in turn kickstarted his career in photography. Daisy’s third article profiles Jimmy, using quotes from numerous people that he saved that night; all of them assert that he was a hero. However, in the wake of this article, Jimmy finds himself unable to handle the guilt any longer, and he dies by suicide, leaving behind a vaguely worded apology note for the town.

While working on Jimmy’s body, an overwhelmed Rose faints and has a bad fall. Daisy and Roger (Rose’s right-hand man) find her and call for an ambulance. While Daisy is helping to clean up an unconscious Rose before she is taken to the hospital, she discovers a violet birthmark at the base of her grandmother’s neck and realizes that Rose is actually Violet.

Dash condemns Daisy for what happened to Jimmy, preaching to the town that her investigative work is what led to his death. When Joe visits Daisy to console her about this and her grandmother’s accident, the two kiss, but then Daisy reveals what she has learned about her grandmother. Because Dash had been Violet’s beau before the explosion, Daisy believes that Joe is her cousin; a shocked Joe leaves immediately.

After drifting in and out of consciousness for days, Rose finally wakes up. Daisy confronts her grandmother about her true identity, and Rose, who is actually Violet, tells Daisy the entire story. Having discovered that she was newly pregnant, the young Violet convinced her twin, Rose, to attend the dance in her stead as Dash’s date; no one else knew the truth. After the explosion, everyone—including Violet’s mother and Rose’s beau, George Steinkamp—believed that Violet was the one who died in the explosion.

Desperate to keep her unborn child (Lettie) safe, Violet adopted her dead sister’s identity and married George in order to pass her child off as his. He eventually discovered the truth about Lettie’s parentage, and although he continued to love her as his own, Violet’s relationship with George and her in-laws was permanently fractured. Due to her deception, she led a sad and lonely life, and this issue was worsened when Lettie, too, left home as a teenager. All of the Steinkamps eventually died, and Violet had no contact with Lettie until she dropped Daisy off in Possum Flats for the summer.

With Violet’s permission, Daisy publishes her grandmother’s story as the final article in her retrospective series, and the revelation takes the town by storm. Fence and the townspeople organize a memorial picnic on the anniversary of the explosion, and Daisy is applauded and celebrated for her bravery and investigative work. Joe and Daisy reconcile at the picnic, with Joe revealing that he is adopted. A furious Dash, who accuses Violet and Daisy of lies and blasphemy, is also stopped in his tracks when Lettie unexpectedly returns to town. Dash finally acknowledges that Lettie is his daughter when he sees the undeniable resemblance between them. Dash apologizes to Violet, and the two dance together; this reconciliation brings a sense of peace to the town.

Later that night, after the celebrations, Daisy sneaks out to meet Joe at the cemetery and honor the incident, just the two of them. Dash dies in his sleep the same night; his spirit floats over the town, and he sees how the lives of his townspeople will eventually unfold. After he watches Joe and Daisy dancing together in the cemetery, his spirit finally lets go for good, realizing that life will go on without him.