A New York Times Bestseller Temperance Brennan has been asked to examine the corpses of three dead babies in Montreal. It?s a difficult assignment, complicated by the fact that her long-time flame Detective Ryan is investigating the infants? mother, a former prostitute. When the woman flees to Edmonton, the team is joined by an RCMP sergeant with whom Tempe had an ill-advised fling, and the dissonant team heads to remotest Yellowknife.