The smell of smoke and Lost River is enveloped in an eerie haze. Newcomer to the town, Lill, is anxious. Her husband Perry is at work and she is out alone on their 25-hectare once weekender. She doesn’t know how far away the fire is and doesn’t want to look a fool by calling for help. Finally a neighbour visits Lill’s house and re-assures her that the fire is 15km away and has been brought under control.

But that night, Lill can’t sleep. She gets up and follows the glow of the distant fire. Eventually finding it beside the road north of town, she watches the amazing firies in action. Lill realises that belonging and surviving in this community means belonging to the RFS.

The community of Lost River needs volunteers, the small town heroes without whom so many country towns would wither and die.

There’s the captain, “Backa” Burke, everybody’s mate. There’s Joey, Mr Responsibility, with a serious demeanour that belies his youth. There’s Joey’s gorgeous girlfriend Fifi, a member of the notorious Sharp family, a family who knows no fear. There’s the equipment officer, silent Eris with the angelic singing voice. There’s lads and lasses and blokes in their 50s.

Then Old Peg Beecher smashes her car and needs a lift to her CWA meeting, and the only one who can do it is Lill. Lill expected that being part of the community would be hard work, but she didn’t know you had to be a saint to even make a start!

Meanwhile, the fire that they thought was put out is still smouldering, and Lill’s worst nightmare comes true.

Even one bad fire can kill-but this time they’ll be fighting on two fronts.

The Fireflies continue their work to fight against the raging fire.

Lost River is in recovery from a devastating fire that nearly took the lives of some of their best firefighters and local farmers.

Perry struggles to come to terms with the loss of his home, while Lill and his daughter Taz rival for his attention.

Meanwhile tension mounts between Joey and Fifi over Fifi’s actions concerning their baby.

Luisa learns that her secret love affair with the local cop Mike, is no longer a secret. It all comes to a head when Rebekah Sharp turns up and announces that Luisa’s husband Eris was inside a fire truck engulfed by flames. Suddenly Luisa realises that a lot more people know about her affair than she thought. She rushes to be with Eris who is feeling lost and alone.

Backa is trying to deliver on his promise to be “there” for his wife Svettie, but his fire crew has been traumatised and there’s counselling to be done.

The fire front is racing into Lost River, it’s much bigger than they thought and the water pressure has failed.

The trucks are going to have to relay back and forth to the dam at Sharpie’s to refill, and when they discover that Suzie’s place is burning inside the roof, Backa has to make a difficult call. No one said fighting fires on your own doorstep was easy.

Meanwhile, Lill’s left Perry with a box and a question: “here’s somewhere to put a few precious things, just in case”, so what should he save?

Joey’s thrown into the thick of things at the Sharps, with Hank being his usual infuriating self and Sharpie way too relaxed to be much good.

Svettie knows exactly what to save-but what should she do first when she can’t leave the shop? It’s going to be a long day.

In the final hour of Fireflies, days have passed since the fires. Everyone is trying to return to normal and clean up the damage, but it’s not going to be easy.

Lill tries her hand at spinning. She has a few CWA ladies over for a spinning session-nothing more meditative or calming, until Perry arrives and shocks her with the news that he’s changed his mind.

After many arguments and tension, he has finally decided that he does want to have a baby with her. Now she really has something to meditate on while she spins her wool!

Fifi and Joey are begrudgingly living with Uncle Jeff, but they’re hoping it’s only temporary. It’s got to be temporary. Just has to be. But Joey knows that with the fires gone and their caravan burnt out, Fifi’s going to have to reconcile with her family. It’s eating her up inside, and Uncle Jeff’s icy deal making isn’t helping.

Sharpie’s just getting by. His house was saved, but now he’s got a son on the critical list in hospital, another son who wants to marry his 15-year-old girlfriend and a wife and daughter estranged from each other. Sharpie starts wondering where he went wrong.

As for Backa, he just wants to give up the captaincy as he always promised Svettie and get on with his life. The only hitch is that no new captain is coming forward. He then discovers four cases of illegal cash crop in the back shed and at last the truth comes out, layer on layer of it-Svettie’s debts, Svettie’s lies, their real financial situation, the fish-farming investments. It’d be funny if it weren’t so shocking. And Constable Mike Jones is sniffing around, dropping hints. Backa’s convinced Mike knows about the drugs.

But it’s a funny old world, as Lill realises she’s torn between the man she loves who’s promising her everything she ever wanted-and a married man who isn’t promising her anything. Maybe the secret is to see things clearly and stop fooling herself. Maybe the secret is to open her eyes and wait for the smoke to clear.