A decomposing body is uncovered in a shallow grave off a lonely beach... The skeleton is articulated, the bone fresh and the vertebrae still connected by soft-tissue - its a recent burial, and a case forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan must take. Dental remains and skeletal gender and race indicators suggest that the deceased is a middle-aged white male - but who was he? Why was he buried in a clandestine grave? And what does the unusual fracture of the sixth cervical vertebra signify? But just as Brennan is trying to piece together the evidence, another body is discovered - and before long Tempe finds herself drawn deeper into a shocking and chilling investigation, set to challenge her entire view of humanity...