Troubled teenager Walter Tyrell loves fire, but he knows as well as anyone else that playing with it will only get you burned. Still, he cannot control himself from grabbing some gasoline and a book of matches and setting off into the night. But the symbol he chooses to burn into the football field is as controversial as the arson itself. Walter has gone too far this time, and he's about to take everyone in his life-including his sister Janice-down with him. High school teacher Robert Barkin thinks he's put the past behind him. But when former classmate Janice Tyrell reenters his life, she shakes his carefully constructed world. Trying to protect her brother Walter from the school's wrath, Jan implicates Robert in an old, unresolved crime and confronts him with the long-buried truth. She plots to worm her way into his life, first as his daughter's babysitter-and then as the lady of the house. Robert's wife has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, and he's trying desperately to care for his family and be a good teacher to his students. But Janice has a different plan for Robert. Now he is surrounded by seduction, deceit, and the licking flames of Walter's fire. Can Robert find a way out of this disaster, or will he be devoured by it too?