Book is in French Hull, 1910. In the heart of their modest neighborhood, the Lépines are pulling trying to make ends meet. To get her family out of poverty, Anna sees no other solution than to push her daughter Georgina to work at E.B. Eddy Match as a "match maker". Instead of going to school, Rose secretly accompanies her older sister to the factory. In the packing room, the workers are packed in like sardines, despite the suffocating heat, their agile hands working frantically for hours on end, until they achieve the regularity and speed of a machine. But the routine is as overwhelming as it is dangerous. One wrong move and the entire production risks going up in smoke. Then there is this infamous disease that consumes some of them... As war breaks out and orders explode, the two sisters witness the injustices and mistreatment suffered by the workers. Rose encourages her colleagues to revolt, to mobilize. Initially fearful, she will involve herself body and soul in this fight, to the point where her loved ones will suffer. Will she let herself be guided by the glow of a better future or will she blow out the flame before it burns her fingers?