This is a crime fiction story with a difference. Red Coltrane would love nothing more than to be a champion relay runner. But that dream disappeared when motor neurone disease took hold of his body. Red also has an intellectual disability, and he lives in supported accommodation with three other variously disabled men, including Johnny, whose prime means of communication is to hum. But today Red's life has just become even more difficult.

He's been charged with murder, and police suspect he is the serial arsonist who has been torching Melbourne's churches. Red thinks he knows what's going on, but his inability to communicate means his version of events may forever remain a mystery.

When he stumbles across some information that he knows he shouldn't possess, Red becomes sure that the only way to stop the fires is to find the arsonist. That search will take all of Red's resolve, and will force him to rely more than he ever thought possible on his housemates and on the one person he's sure won't let him down, his long-term carer and hero, Pedro.