Whitney Brubaker lost her parents in an arson fire as a teenager. This launched her on a career as a Fire Investigator with Los Angeles County. After ten years on the job and having built a solid reputation, she starts her own investigative company, specializing in arson. Years later, unexpected good fortune comes her way, and she decides to retire to Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino mountains. She sells her company for a dollar to her longtime friend and mentor. But before she retires, two arson fires catch her attention. A professional arsonist has come to town and leaves signatures that clearly identify him as TCB, a professional arsonist. Once she moves to Lake Arrowhead, the TCB arsonist strikes again, leaving his trademarks in her new mountain community. She is disturbed because this TCB seems to have followed her to the mountains. She becomes friends with the local fire fighters and assists on arson cases as a volunteer, all the while, in the back of her mind, she is still chasing TCB.
TCB is an aging professional arsonist and very good at his job. He works through a faceless broker on the deep web who finds him jobs. The two of them make a lot of money in this line of work. TCB has a strict policy of never having people involved in his torch jobs. No one is to ever get hurt or killed. But meth heads break into an expensive house in Lake Arrowhead that TCB is burning down and while he saves the lives of two of them, two others die in the fire. He is devastated.
Aaron McCall is a mature man who has led a life in construction with a specific specialization. He travels the country doing jobs and is paid very well, amassing a large nest egg. He is also a very good guitarist and spends evenings at Open Mic Nights at bars whenever and wherever he can, any chance to play. His work takes him to Lake Arrowhead where he meets Whitney at a bar where he is playing. He falls in love with the mountain and finds more than he ever imagined.
When Whitney discovers the identity of TCB, she arrives at a crossroad where she must decide between doing the right thing or letting her heart have what it wants. She wants both, but can she make that happen somehow?
Hearts On Fire explores love late in life, the struggle between duty and love, and the magic of Lake Arrowhead, California .