McCarter Theatre Center presents the world premiere production of The Bells, by Theresa Rebeck, directed by artistic director Emily Mann. This new drama, set in the waning years of the Alaskan Gold Rush, tracks the intertwined fates of a gregarious innkeeper, Mathias, his rebellious daughter, Annette, and the misfits of a boomtown gone bust. Hard luck and hunger have brought them together, but when a stranger begins asking questions about the mysterious disappearance of a Chinese prospector, Xiufei, he soon learns that it’s every man for himself in this vast white wilderness, where nothing is quite what it seems, and ghost stories are never taken lightly.