Mike Flanagan was a young man, fresh out of high school and off his parents Minnesota farm, when he made his way to Minneapolis to find his role in life. Mired in a factory job he hates, he is on his way home one day when he comes upon a house on fire, and learns that there are kids trapped upstairs. In a daring recue he saves their lives, not knowing that they are the kids of a Minneapolis fire fighter named Deacon Crawford. With Deacon's help and encouragment, Mike joins the Minneapolis Fire Department.

He finds a career filled with danger and adventure, and he also finds Laura Evans, who steals his heart, and then disappears. Mike turns from firefighting to investagation, and the pursuit of a pyromaniac named David Bennett. He is as obsessed with catching Bennett, as Bennett is with destroying Mike. Always, though, there is a flame in his heart he can't put out. Her name is Laura.