Richard Roundtree portrays Shelly Forsythe, an African American firefighter candidate at an all white firehouse in this drama that was originally developed as a television pilot. Shelly must deal with both the physical tests of his training as well as the racism of his peers as he strives to become a full-fledged fire fighter. Things are made more complicated for the firefighter-in-training due to the fact that the man he is replacing was killed in a fire set by a black arsonist.