Investigating a massacre that took place in Guatemala in 1982, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan discovers that those events are linked to the disappearance of four girls from Guatemala City, as well as the murder of a human rights investigator.
An anthropologist in her early thirties on the loose in Africa pursues a fit, late-forties utopian male in Botswana. Dreams, plans, and schemes surround their courtship.