White Flowers

The story follows Alfred Binkard, a young, idealistic Harvard graduate who takes a position as head counselor at the MacNee psychiatric institution in Dayton, Ohio. From the moment he arrives, he senses something deeply wrong. The facility is less a place of healing and more a place where vulnerable people are neglected, abused, and forgotten.Alfred quickly forms a bond with Emmett Hawthorne, a fragile five-year-old orphan who survived a house fire that killed his wealthy parents. Emmett is quiet, deeply traumatized, and fixated on “white flowers,” which he associates with death. He claims to see them before people “go away,” hinting at both his trauma and a possible deeper intuition. Read more