In the drought-stricken town of Warragulla, where ash and ember now dominate the scorched landscape, Detective Maya Thorne returns to help her brother rebuild after a devastating bushfire jumps containment lines and threatens the town.

What begins as recovery efforts soon erupts into something far darker when archaeologist Dr. Eliza Jennings is found murdered at a site where the fire has uncovered ancient remains along a disputed property boundary. As Maya is temporarily deputised to assist the investigation, she discovers this death connects to historical disappearances, mineral rights, and generations of deception that powerful local families have maintained for decades.

As the fire's aftermath continues to reveal buried secrets, Maya uncovers connections between the murdered archaeologist and a journalist who vanished in 1985, a boundary dispute dating back to the 1930s, and a system of corruption that has shaped the region for generations. With pressure mounting from all sides, each step closer to the truth tests Maya's complex relationship with the hometown she once fled but now considers reclaiming as her own.

The harsh reality of outback life has shaped these people, creating a pressure cooker of loyalties and betrayals where entire family legacies hang in the balance. But in a place where fire has stripped away the surface, some truths refuse to stay buried.

Maya must navigate both the physical dangers of a fire-ravaged landscape and the smouldering tensions of a community whose deepest secrets are finally being exposed – before the killer strikes again to protect what remains.