WHO ever thought arson could be funny? With a light, humourous touch, filmmaker James Knight details his neighbourhood's nightmarish ordeal as the repeated target of an arsonist. Knight pays due respect to the feelings of everyone in his neighbourhood, including himself, of bewildered terror, through confessional retrospection. He also manages to provide wry insight into the personality transformations brought on by a siege mentality.

When the first garage in Knight's L.A. neighbourhood went up in flame, it was officially concluded to have been caused accidentally. A second fire that same night confirmed, however, the presence of an arsonist in the neighbourhood. Many fires will be set before the investigation narrows in on its target, but not before the finger has been pointed at more than one person.

Using home-movie techniques, Knight intercuts interviews with segments shot in a garage with his buddy as they recall their own childhood experiments with pyrotechnics. What makes this documentary so interesting is Knight's attempt to understand not only the vigilantiism of the victims, but also the mentality of the arsonist himself. Admitting his own fascination with fire, Knight moves toward an identifiation with the arsonist that curiously frames himself as a suspect. In true detective spirit, Knight drops clues and red herrings in their original chronology so that we, too, get caught up in the need to know whodunnit, and why.