In the small town of Martin's Grove, New Mexico a serial arsonist is setting fire to one senior care facility after another.

As the crimes continue, with no progress in finding the culprit or figuring out his motives the city hires a new police chief: a former Scotland Yard inspector with a past history of success in serial arson cases.

As the crimes continue, the new police chief and the town's fire chief go after even the smallest clue that might lead to the capture of the culprit, with each of them calling on his specialties to solve the case.

Then when an alarm sounds in the town's largest senior care home, a lady nearing her ninetieth birthday sees two men running down a hall, one chasing the other. She recognizes the second man as a man who had saved her life fifty years before, despite the fact that he'd died nearly forty years earlier. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.