The body of a teenage girl is discovered along a desolate highway on the outskirts of Charlotte. Inside her purse is the ID card of a local businessman who died in a fire months earlier. But who is the girl? And was she murdered? Dr Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist, must find the answers. She soon learns that a Gulf War veteran stands accused of smuggling artefacts into the country. Could there be a connection between the two cases? Convinced that the girl's death was no accident, Tempe uncovers a conspiracy that extends from South America to Afghanistan. But to find justice for the dead she must be more courageous, and take more extreme action, than ever before.