The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – Black Fire Orchid

For nine-year-old Alice Hart (Alyla Browne), all she has known is life with her father Clem (Charlie Vickers) and her mother Agnes (Tilda Cobham-Hewey). With a new sibling on the way and her parents seemingly blissful, Alice’s like appears to be a dream. But not everything is what it seems. 

Having to leave the house for a trip, Clem leaves Alice and Agnes on their own at the house. There, they manage to find some time to head to bond in the field, potting flowers at home, and playing at the beach. But when Alice pleads with Agnes to head into town, Agnes is reluctant to do so. One morning as Alice checks in on her mother in bed, she sees that Agnes is despondent and refuses to leave the comfort of her room. Instead, Alice sneaks off into the town herself….barefoot and bruises all over her arms and legs. Heading to the local library, there she meets librarian Sally Morgan (Asher Keddie).  

Sally immediately takes to Alice and provides her with books to read and her own library card to bring some books home. Curious in nature, Alice overhears Sally having a conversation with someone about her and she begins to head home. However, when she sees her father Clem’s car in the driveway… Alice becomes fearful. Walking inside, she can hear Clem on the phone trying to find out where his daughter has gone and sees Agnes in a doorway. Alice looks to Agnes for guidance and sees that her mother tells her to “run.” Unfortunately, Clem is quicker and grabs Alice….beating her and ripping up the library card she received.  

The following day, Officer John Morgan (Alexander England) heads over to the Hart residence after Sally called him. Clem and Agnes hide Alice’s bruises from the officer and John hands Alice a stack of books to read. The top one in particular catches her eye – The Selkie Story. Agnes quickly snatches that book and Alice then becomes interested in a book about gods.  

More and more frequently, Alice begins to dream of killing Clem by dousing him in kerosene and lighting a match. Quickly snapped out of that daydream, Agnes collects the library books from Alice to bring back to Sally before her and Clem head to her doctor’s appointment. Left to her own devices, Alice begins to explore the shed her father spends a lot of his time in and finds it is filled with lots of wood sculptures and old photographs of her parents. During Alice’s snooping, Clem and Agnes return home. Alice is quickly startled and knocks over a lamp, starting a fire. As Clem goes to inspect the damage, Alice has managed to sneak back inside and hopes to avoid her father’s wrath. 

At the Morgan residence, Sally holds the returned copy of The Selkie Story and sees that words like “escape” have been underlined in the book. Unfortunately, Sally then receives a call that something has happened at the Hart residence and Alice is in a coma at the hospital. Sally heads to the hospital and finds Agnes being wheeled away and Clem in a body bag. Meanwhile, investigators at the Hart residence try to determine what caused the fire in the main house.  

While at the hospital, Sally learns that Agnes has died and that her son has been placed in a neonatal unit at twenty-five weeks old. But as Sally handles the news of Alice’s new situation, an older woman named June (Sigourney Weaver) arrives at the Hart house: Alice’s grandmother. After receiving news that her son Clem and his wife have died, June drives home to her house at Thornfield to share the news with her companion Twig (Leah Purcell).  

Sally and John spend time with Alice at the hospital during her coma, remarking how Alice looks very much like their late daughter Gemma. Sally takes to reading to Alice in her coma as Alice dreams about the ways that her father trying to mask his abuse by making Alice thoughtful gifts from his wood shop. But in time, Alice comes out of her coma and learns of the death of her parents. 

Fast forward to two months later, Sally has continued to visit Alice and bring her books and little treats at the hospital. For June, she is in Wyuna to attend Clem’s funeral and continues to grapple with the idea of bringing Alice home with her. While still making a decision, June visits Alice while in town and brings her flowers from her house with the meaning of “live bravely.” But it is when June sees Alice having a panic attack on the sidewalk outside the hospital that she steps in and decides bring Alice home with her. This decision upsets Sally, who was hoping to take Alice in as a replacement to Gemma.  

Making the four hour trek to Thornfield, June promises Alice that she will not get hurt again and has Alice brought up to a room to get situated….the room Agnes once lived in. While Sally takes the loss of custody over Alice hard, she heads up to her attic in the middle of the night and unwraps and hugs a carved wooden figure that looks like one of Clem’s creations. At Thornfield, June makes her nightly rounds on the property. Looking up at the bedroom Alice is in, she sees her looking out the window.