Its a summer of record-breaking heat in Charlotte North Carolina & Dr Temperance Brennan is looking forward to her first vacation in years. Shes almost out the door when the bones start appearing. First theres the newborn skeleton found in a wood stove. Who put the baby there? The mother hardly more than a child herself has disappeared. Next a small plane flies into a rock face on a sunny afternoon. Both pilot & passenger are burned beyond recognition their bodies covered with a strange black substance. What could it be? What sinister mission might the two have been on? Most puzzling is a cache of bones unearthed in a remote corner of the county. Some animal some human the bones are enough to keep Tempe busy for a long time. All the pieces of the mystery seem to lead back to an isolated farm. But what happened there & who will be the next victim? Tempe must find the answers by teasing secrets from the bones
- if only she can decipher them in time.