It"s one of the hottest summers on record and forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is looking forward to a long-overdue vacation. But it"s not to be... First, the bones of a newborn baby are found in a wood stover; the mother, hardly more than a child herself, has disappeared. Next, a Cessna flies into a rock face. The bodies of the pilot and passenger are burned beyond recognition, and covered in an unknown substance. And then a cache of bones is found in a remote corner of the county. But what happened there, and who will be the next victim? The answers lie hidden depp within the bones - if only Tempe can decipher them in time...