It's a summer of sizzling heat in Charlotte where Dr. Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist for the North Carolina medical examiner, looks forward to her first vacation in years. A romantic vacation. She's almost out the door when the bones start appearing.

A newborn's charred remains turn up in a woodstove. The mother, Tamela Banks, hardly more than a child herself, has disappeared. Did she kill her infant, or is an innocent teenager also about to become a victim?

On a summer morning in 1982, soldiers enter a Guatemalan village and massacre its women and children. Terrified of meeting a similar fate, returning relatives quickly bury their dead in makeshift graves. Today these families refer to their lost members as "the disappeared, " and human rights teams are trying to find them. Dr. Temperance Brennan, international forensic anthropologist, has been asked to investigate one of the most heartbreaking cases of her career. As she digs in the cold, damp soil, clues emerge: a hair clip, a tiny sneaker, the hip bone of a child less than two years old.

Something savage happened in the highlands two decades ago, and something savage is happening today. Four girls are missing from Guatemala City, and the victims may be linked. An American human rights investigator is murdered as Tempe listens to her screams on the phone. Will Tempe be the next victim in a web of intrigue that spans decades?