The story opens to find Orlando in a hopeless battle with alcohol, trying to overcome its grip in isolation. Years of alcoholic despair and the inability to put his late wife’s memory to rest have plunged him into a deep depression, convincing Orlando he doesn’t need a recovery program to salvage his life. Though miserable with the job at the Lighthouse Inn, he decides to stay sober and work for a year before leaving Tampa in search of a fresh start. But his abstinence plan doesn't work, and after a relapse he can no longer deceive himself and accepts sobriety, having witnessed another way to live at the inn. Working at the Lighthouse, he experiences the healing power of helping others and rediscovers himself. Based on the athletic talent of the residents brought to the inn, he organizes a basketball team, the Thunderbolts. Making peace with the past, they embark on the road to redemption—and the realization of shattered and forgotten dreams.

Sticks of Fire: The Turning Point presents us with Orlando’s struggle of acceptance and his first year in sobriety, along with the confusion and doubt that the first turbulent year brings. And it illustrates how, with the help of others in recovery and with a little faith, he is able to put the wreckage of the past in perspective, experience gratitude, and look to the future.

 

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