Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist for both North Carolina and Quebec, offers result from Charlotte to Montreal during the bleak days of December to testify while an expert witness at a murder trial. She ought to be going over her records, but instead she’s digging in the basement of the pizza parlor. Not fun. Freezing frosty. Crawling rats. And now, the skeletonized remains of three young women. How did they get there? When did they die?

Homicide detective Luc Claudel thinks the bone fragments are about Mon Mourning: A Novel historic. Not really his case, not really his concern. However when Tempe examines the bone fragments in her laboratory, she establishes approximate age group with Carbon 14. Further study of tooth teeth enamel tells her where the women were given birth to. If she’s correct, Claudel has three recent murders on his hands. Certainly his case.

Detective Andrew Ryan is certainly acting mysteriously. What are those personal calls he takes in the other room, and why does he suddenly vanish simply when Tempe is certainly beginning to hope he might be a permanent element of her lifestyle? Looks like even more lonely evenings for Tempe and Birdie, her cat.

As Tempe searches for answers in both her personal and professional lives, she discovers herself drawn deep right into a internet of evil from which there may be no escape. Women have vanished, never to return…Tempe may be next.