Abandoned in a run-down apartment and sole caregiver for her two younger siblings, sixteen-year-old Callie Valentine is certain the safest thing to do is never trust anyone. This includes the kindly, yet mysterious, mortician, Victor Delamorte, who offers them a place to live in his mortuary.

The elegantly dressed funeral home beautician named Lucy has an icy touch that kills lice and burns skin, and she has a magical dress that tells the story of the mythical Phoenix bird. Lucy piques Callie’s interest more than frightens her. What kind of being is Lucy?

Callie suspects Delamorte intends to ask her for something in return for his alleged act of kindness. Will it be slave labor or something more personal? Just as her mistrust hits a boiling point, Callie falls ill and is nursed back to health by Delamorte. Callie decides the funeral home can be a place of new beginnings.

When Delamorte’s own health declines, Callie cares for him but worries he is losing his mind when he speaks of a device in his possession capable of resurrecting the dead. Lucy reveals herself to be something unthinkable. When the resurrection device is stolen by Delamorte’s greedy assistant, Callie must find a way to recover it. At stake, a stable, normal life for herself and her siblings.

Will Callie trust the words of a dying man about the magic of an ancient device to restore life to the dead? Will the being that is Lucy help or oppose Callie’s efforts restore Delamorte to life. A tale of grief and recovery, love and hope, The Phoenix is a genre-bending mashup of contemporary fiction, myth and magic.