Rowan Tripp is addicted to danger. She's been fighting the annual forest fires in the rugged Montana mountains since she was eighteen years old. She can read a wildfire like no one else - and is prepared to put her life on the line again and again to save others. But now she is mourning the death of her good friend and jump partner, Jim - and haunted by the fact that she might have been able to save him.

More pressing is the fact that the new season's recruits to the 'smoke-jumping' team need to be trained. Rowan has a strict rule: NEVER get romantically involved with anyone she works with. But the moment she meets Gull Curry that rule is severely tested. And when it becomes clear that someone does blame Rowan for Jim's death and is determined to seek revenge, Rowan finds that she needs Gull's help and support more than ever.