The arrival of a stranger in town turns the genteel suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio, upside down in “Little Fires Everywhere,” an adaptation of the best selling novel by Celeste Ng.

The eight-episode limited series, set in 1997, opens, fittingly enough, with a scene of devastation. Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon) stands in front of a burning house — the one where she lives with her husband and four children. Elena is one of the town’s self-appointed gatekeepers, a micromanager whose need to control has turned at least one of her children — Izzie (Megan Stott), the youngest — against her. Her phone call to the local police about the presence of an “older model” blue hatchback with an “African-American” woman behind the wheel in a local parking lot sets in motion the chain of events that ultimately sparks the fire that burns her house to the ground.

The driver — and sometimes occupant — of that old blue hatchback is Mia Warren (Kerry Washington, in her best TV role), a renegade artist who moves from town to town, following her muse and taking her teenage daughter, Pearl (Lexi Underwood), along for the ride. Mia is a proud outcast whose encounters with Elena serve as inspiration and lead to confrontation. She rents a house from Elena and eventually takes a job as a mother’s helper in the Richardson household as a way of making Elena and her carefully manicured world into her next big art project. “Shaker Heights becomes Mia’s muse,” says executive producer and director Lynn Shelton. “It’s probably why she doesn’t up and leave.”

The results are more Picasso’s “Guernica” than Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers.” The conflict between the two women is exacerbated by their daughters. Elena’s rebellious Izzie emulates Mia. Conformist Pearl finds Elena’s immaculate world of comfort irresistible. “Izzie’s lived in Shaker Heights all her life,” showrunner Liz Tigelaar tells The Post. “Mia is driven by her art to move around, chasing her inspiration. Her daughter Pearl leads the same lifestyle but craves something different. Izzie sees the way Mia lives and sees there’s another way to be happy.”

“Little Fires Everywhere,” which was filmed in LA, invites comparisons to “Big Little Lies.” Its themes of motherhood, suburban wealth and white privilege overlap and the comparisons are greatly enhanced by Witherspoon’s appearance in both series in a very similar role (she also serves as executive producer on both projects). But the children’s roles in “Fires” take on a greater importance. “We approached the children in the ‘Friday Night Lights’ vein,” Tigelaar says. “The adult and teenaged stories are of equal importance. That was something ‘Friday Night Lights’ did incredibly well. We loved the rootedness of this town and that the kids were repeating the lives of their parents.”

The unexpected introduction of a minor character — a Chinese undocumented worker with an infant — galvanizes the other mothers in Shaker Heights to reveal their true colors. “Bebe’s (Lu Huang) circumstances force you to examine what makes someone a good mother,” Tigelaar says. “How tied-in to finances is our definition of what makes a good mother? Mia’s intensity to help Bebe ties into a mystery about her own life and secrets and things that she is hiding.”

And “Little Fires Everywhere” won’t make the mistake of ordering a second season, as “Big Little Lies” did, to the disappointment and frustration of its fans. “I see it as one and done,” Tigelaar says. “I do feel like things are burnt to the ground.”