The skeleton is that of a young girl, no more than fourteen years old and forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan is struggling to keep her emotions in check. A nagging in her subconcious won't let up. A memory triggered deep in her hindbrain, the disappearance of a childhood friend, no warning, no explanation. Detective Andrew Ryan is working a series of parallel cases, three missing people, three unidentified bodies - all female, all early to mid teens. Could Tempe's skeleton be another in this tragic line of young victims. Working on instinct, Tempe takes matters into her own hands but even she couldn't predict the horrors this investigation would uncover.