Greg Kowalski grows up in Michigan with an emotionally and physically abusive father, a Saginaw city firefighter. Cut off from his family, Greg travels to California to become a seasonal firefighter with CDF. He is tormented by the contradiction of hatred for his father and the need to have his fathers approval and love. Greg moves on to the brutal LACoFD Helitak-Attack training academy where he graduates and begins work. He suffers traumatic stress after his crew is trapped on a mountainside in an explosive wildfire in which his captain and mentor dies. The night before this incident, Greg's father is killed in a fire in Saginaw. Greg struggles to cope. He comes to terms with the loss of his captain but has greater difficulty surmounting his fathers influence on his life. This story focuses on the two formative years of his training as a young wildland firefighter when Greg comes of age and finds acceptance and comfort within the family of his fire crew.