The Fire Eternal begins five years after Fire Star while David Rain is still missing, presumed dead after the events in the Arctic. Meanwhile, Zanna has started up a small shop for gothic jewelry, crystals, aromatherapy, reflexology, and flower tinctures (anything "new agey", Zanna says), called The Healing Touch. She is also raising her five-year old daughter Alexa (also David's daughter) while living at Wayward Crescent. Everyone in the household seems to accept that David is gone forever, but Lucy refuses to give up the hope that David might still be alive somewhere.