Temperance Brennan, still recovering from neurosurgery following an aneurysm, is battling nightmares and what she thinks might be hallucinations when she receives a series of mysterious text messages, each containing a new picture of a corpse that is missing its face and hands. An identified corpse soon turns up, only partly answering her questions. The 19th instalment in the bestselling series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.