Sam Pulsifer is determined to put his past behind him after serving a prison term for torching an American literary landmark and killing two people in the blaze, but when the homes of notable American writers begin to go up in smoke, his history makes him the prime suspect.

Determined to put the past behind him after serving a ten-year prison term for torching an American landmark and killing two people in the blaze, Sam Pulsifer gets married, starts a family, buys a home, and builds a new career, but his past comes back to haunt him when the homes of notable American writers begin to go up in smoke and Sam becomes the prime suspect in the crimes.