Fireproof is the story of a firefighter, Captain Caleb Holt, who lives by the old firefighter's adage: Never leave your partner behind but when seven years of marriage to his wife, Catherine fails neither one knows how to deal with it. Mainly because neither understands the pressures the other faces. Caleb claims that Catherine is too sensitive and doesn't show him any respect. Whereas she tells her hospital co-workers that he is to insensitive and that he doesn’t listen and they both prepare to file for divorce. As they prepare to file for divorce, Caleb's father challenges his son to commit to a 40-day test called The Love Dare. Caleb starts it, but mostly because his father asked him to rather than for his marriage.

When Caleb discovers the book’s daily challenges are tied into his parents' newfound faith, his already limited interest is further dampened. Even though he wants to keep his promise to his father, Caleb becomes frustrated when every effort to win back his wife fails. He eventually asks his father, How he is supposed to show love to somebody who constantly rejects him and his father explains that this is the love God shows to people. People are constantly rejecting God and yet He patiently, maybe even stubbornly continues to love them. With this new information Caleb makes a life-changing commitment to love God and with God's help, he begins to understand what it means to truly love his wife.

Caleb and Catherine Holt give the viewer a very good picture of how the breakdown of a marriage begins. In one of the first scenes between the Holt’s begins with them barely speaking in their kitchen. When they do speak it quickly turns into a heated argument. It’s in the heat of one of their arguments where Catherine has had enough and tells Caleb through tears that she wants a divorce. It’s in that moment that the audience realizes that Caleb’s anger from his wife’s disrespect and Catherine’s bitterness from feeling rejected due in part to her husband’s unspoken addiction has ruined their marriage.

Catherine talking about the computer and at one point a pop up of a female face on Caleb’s computer only alludes to Caleb’s addiction in the movie. It’s obvious that his addiction is probably to Internet porn, but Catherine’s attitude makes it even more evident that Caleb is not the only problem.

Catherine also has problems of her own. She's faced with financially supporting her father and sick Mother and becomes angry with her husband because he isn't helping her with her family. Furthermore, she compounds their already strained marriage by sleeping in a separate bedroom and is openly hostile to him. All the while, she’s respectful and caring at work, and begins finding emotional fulfillment at her work as she begins to confide in a male doctor at the hospital about her sick mother’s needs.

Another brilliant angle to Fireproof is that it also addresses the subject of being unsaved. The Holt’s are just two very real people with real problems that any married couple could battle. However, God is integrated into the film first through Caleb’s friend, Lt. Michael Simmons (Ken Bevel) and then through John Holt (Harris Malcom), his father.

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