In the late Edo period, fires are one of the greatest threats to the crowded city of Edo. Matsunaga Gengo, a former elite firefighter once known as the Fire-Eating Bird, had retired from the fire brigade following a specific incident. Living as a ronin with his wife Miyuki, Gengo receives an unexpected invitation from the Shinjo clan to rebuild their firefighting brigade. The clan's team is bankrupt, lacks personnel, and has become the subject of mockery, with locals dubbing them the Ragged Steeplejacks or Boro Tobi-gumi due to their tattered coats. Encouraged by his wife, Gengo accepts the position of head of the collapsed team.

Gengo is joined by Shinnosuke Torigoe, a mood-maker with a superhuman memory who serves as the vice-captain and carries lingering feelings about his own firefighter father. Together, they recruit a crew of unique outcasts and drifters. This includes Torajiro, a gentle former sumo wrestler known as a destroyer for his physical strength; Hikoya, an acrobat and artisan; and Seijuro Kaji, a strategist and scholar with a talent for reading the wind. Bound together by dangerous work and a shared sense of duty despite their poverty, the members risk their lives battling massive blazes in an era when fire is one of the most devastating dangers to daily life.

While working to rebuild their reputation and save lives, a mysterious series of suspicious arson incidents known as the foxfires plagues Edo. Gengo and his team must navigate the politics of the city, cooperate with the fire thief magistrate Heizō Hasegawa, and investigate these crimes while also proving their worth on the fireground. Notable narrative arcs follow the team as they rescue hostages from groups trying to manipulate firefighting efforts, confront thieves who use fires as cover for robbery, and face a massive inferno that requires them to coordinate with the entire city to stop. Despite being ridiculed initially, the brigade begins to earn the affection of the citizens of Edo as they struggle to save any life, standing up to both natural disasters and human-caused calamities.