Two decades before the story begins, a girl saves her younger brother from drowning at the hands of their abusive father. The boy watches as his sister and his father are consumed by the flames that unleash in him a psychotic fascination with fire. He brings up his newfound interest in flames burning down the children's ward of the hospital where he was staying. By the time the story begins, the boy has grown into a man and has honed his arsonist tendencies. The fire department has its hands full fighting not only the flames (and Seoul's traffic problems) but also like a lunatic bent on eliminating those who would stop their fires.