This is a samurai show that trades swords for water and makes you care about it. Gengo carries the weight of a man who stepped away from something he was legendary at, pulled back because a forgotten clan needs him more than his peace does. The real fight isn't against fire, it's against the shame of being overlooked, the rust of stepping back, the slow rebuild of something broken that nobody else will touch. His wife Miyuki isn't a motivator archetype; she's the reason he risks becoming legendary again when legend almost destroyed him the first time. You watch a man who already proved himself have to prove it all over again, in a place where no one's watching.

Matsunaga Gengo was once the finest fire-fighting samurai in Edo, called the "Fire-eating Bird" after he stopped a great fire. He left the fire brigade for reasons of his own, then unexpectedly receives an offer to serve the Shinjo clan, whose fire-fighting team has neither funds nor people and is held in low regard. Encouraged by his wife Miyuki, Gengo takes charge of rebuilding the failing brigade. He and his eccentric companions are mocked as the Boro-Tobi-Gumi, the "ragged steeplejacks," yet they commit to saving every life they can. Meanwhile, a string of strange, suspicious fires known as "foxfires" keeps breaking out across Edo in this action drama.