The Phoenix Crown: A Novel

The Phoenix Crown, by bestselling authors Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, was originally published in 2024. The Phoenix Crown is a work of historical fiction set in the early 1900s. It follows a soprano and a seamstress (and two of their friends) as they chart their lives in a San Francisco still recovering from the deadly 1906 earthquake. The story begins just before the earthquake and ends five years later, in 1911. Quinn draws on her personal experiences training as an opera singer in college, and Chang (a Canadian born in Taiwan) draws upon her years of research into her family’s genealogy, as well as research into Chinatown and Chinese Americans. The novel explores the themes of The Relationship Between Art and Trauma; Sexism and the Intersectional Oppression of Women; and Class, Labor, and Gender.

This guide is based on the HarperCollins paperback edition.

Content Warnings: The source material includes depictions of homicide, suicide, drug abuse, racism, medical abuse, anti-gay bias, and an earthquake and fire that cause city-wide destruction.

Plot Summary

Gemma Garland is an opera singer in San Francisco, where Suling Feng works as a seamstress. Their lives intersect with Alice Eastwood, a botanist, and Reggie (initially known to Gemma as Nellie) a painter. In Act I, the authors focus on the bonds between these women in the days before and after the earthquake. In Act II, the authors describe when the women reunite in 1911 in France. The “Entr’acte” is about the separate lives of the women in the intervening years.

Prior to Gemma’s arrival in San Francisco, Nellie, her friend (going by the name Reggie), becomes romantically involved with Henry Thornton, a railroad tycoon and patron of the arts. Henry hosts lavish parties in his octagonal mansion, and at one of these parties Reggie meets Suling, who has been hired to pass out refreshments. They fall in love, and Suling introduces Reggie to Madam Ning, her late mother’s closest friend. One day, Reggie disappears without a word to Suling or to Gemma. Gemma, meanwhile, gives her agent access to her accounts because she suffers from migraines that hinder her ability to manage her finances, and he steals all her savings.

When Gemma arrives in the city, 13 days before the earthquake, she believes Reggie has abandoned her. Suling, who is dressed as a boy, helps Gemma get her luggage up a large hill. Gemma rents Reggie’s room and meets Alice, who lives in the same boarding house. Gemma visits the opera house to practice for her part in the chorus of Carmen, and there she meets the local accompanist, George, and Henry. Henry compliments Gemma’s singing and invites her on a dinner date. She agrees, mostly because she is broke. On the date, she learns that Henry was burned in a fire and has been afraid of fire ever since. He offers to become her patron and throw a party where she will perform for his wealthy friends.

Meanwhile, Suling’s Third Uncle, who acts as her guardian, is pressuring her into an arranged marriage with a man she does not like or trust, and Suling is trying to leave the city to escape this arrangement. Henry hires her to sew some silk flowers. When Suling works at the party that Henry throws for Gemma, Alice convinces Henry to hire Suling to repair a dragon robe. Alice attends the party to see Henry’s Queen of the Night flower, which only blooms once a year.

Gemma becomes Henry’s lover after the party and spends most of her time at his house. He pays for George to accompany her during daily rehearsals and organizes an exclusive party at his house after the opening of Carmen, where Gemma will sing for more famous people. Henry also pays for Gemma to take the role of Micaëla away from another singer. Once Gemma and Suling realize that Reggie and Nellie are the same person, and missing, they start investigating her disappearance.

On opening night, Gemma struggles to perform with the famous tenor Enrico Caruso. While Henry is watching her performance, Suling breaks into Henry’s office. She discovers, through his receipts, that he has paid to have Reggie imprisoned in an asylum. After leaving a note for Gemma, Suling goes to the asylum. At the party, Gemma sings “Queen of the Night” beautifully, impressing Caruso and other important people, like the Mayor. The party lasts all night, and the earthquake hits just as Gemma is reading the review of Carmen in the morning paper. Meanwhile, Suling tries to convince the nuns to let her see Reggie and, unsuccessful, sits in a nearby church portico. The earthquake wrecks the asylum, giving Suling the opportunity to free Reggie.

While Henry runs off to stop looters with his gun, Gemma helps Alice retrieve botanical samples from the California Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile, Reggie, who was locked up because she saw Henry commit murder, learns that Gemma is Henry’s mistress. Reggie insists that she and Suling go to his mansion. Gemma and Alice head there as well to rescue Gemma’s pet bird. They all reunite and are gathering their things when Henry returns. Madam Ning also arrives to collect an outstanding payment from Henry, and he shoots her. Then, he locks the four women in his conservatory with the rare flower, takes his Phoenix Crown and other expensive items out of the house, and sets the house on fire.

The four women eventually get the conservatory unlocked. Gemma and Alice make it outside with the flower, but the others are still inside. Using her extensive lung capacity from being a singer, Gemma holds her breath and rescues Reggie and Suling. They all go back to the boarding house and watch the flower bloom as the city burns.

Afterwards, they part ways. Suling and Reggie go to Oakland, Alice goes off into nature in the Tahoe region, and Gemma finds the opera company. She sings with Caruso in the ruined city. While he goes off to get the company a ride to the ferry, Gemma finds a piano in a street and begins to sing by herself. George finds her, due to the singing, and takes over playing the piano as she sings until she is hoarse and their ride arrives.

Gemma and George move to Buenos Aires, work for the opera there, and get married. Suling and Reggie move to New York and then Paris, as Suling advances in her career as a seamstress and eventual fashion designer. Reggie is unable to paint seriously after her trauma. In 1911, Alice sees a notice in the papers about Henry’s phoenix crown. He is going by William and plans to show off his new fiancée, the daughter of a Viennese baron, in the crown at a party in Versailles. Suling is also invited to the party, as it is held by a famous figure in the fashion industry. Reggie steals her invitation and goes to the party to warn Henry’s new fiancée.

Suling uses the dragon robe to get into the party without her invitation, bringing along Gemma and Alice as her guests. They eventually find Henry and his fiancée, Cecilia. Gemma and Suling advance on Henry with torches, demanding he confess his crimes. Alice makes sure Cecilia’s father witnesses the confession, and he gets the police involved. Henry goes to trial, but dies by suicide shortly into the proceedings. The four women all move back to San Francisco. Reggie is able to paint again after Henry’s death, and the Epilogue uses descriptions of her paintings to reveal how the women’s lives have flourished after their battle with Henry.