Dr Temperance Brennan & her students are working on a site of prehistoric graves on an island near Charleston South Carolina when a decomposing body is uncovered in a shallow grave off a lonely beach. The bone is fresh & the remains are still topped by wisps of hair
- its a recent burial & a case Tempe must take. Tempe determines that the deceased is a middle-aged white male
- but who was he? Why was he buried in a clandestine grave? & what does an unusual vertical fracture of one of the vertebrae signify? Before long another body is discovered
- & Tempe finds herself drawn deeper into a shocking investigation which will challenge her entire view of humanity.