It's the summer of record-breaking heat in Charlotte and Dr Temperance Brennan is looking forward to her first vacation in years. She's almost out the door when the bones start appearing. First there's the little skeleton of a newborn found in a wood stove. Who put her there? The mother, hardly more than a child herself, has disappeared. Next, a Cessna plane flies into a rock face on a sunny afternoon. Both pilot and passenger are burned beyond recognition, their bodies covered with a strange black substance. What could it be? There's evidence that they may have had criminal purposes for the flight. Most puzzling, though, is a cache of bones found in a remote corner of the country. Some animal, some human, the bones are enough to keep Tempe busy for a long time to come. All the pieces of the mystery seem to lead back to an isolated farm. But what happened there and who will be the next victim? The answers lie hidden deep within the bones — if only Tempe can decipher them in time…