
Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist who works at the Jeffersonian Institution and also writes books, has an impressive ability to read clues from victims' bones. Consequently, law enforcement calls her to assist with investigations when remains are so badly decomposed, burned or destroyed that standard identification methods are useless. Brennan is teamed with Special Agent Seeley Booth, a former Army sniper, who mistrusts science and scientists when it comes to solving crimes but who has developed respect for Brennan, both professionally and personally.

Booth suspects an organized-crime family when a partial skeleton is found encased in concrete, and he tries to lure the suspected killer out of hiding; Brennan gets a surprise visit from her father (Ryan O'Neal) while visiting her mother's grave.

When Brennan and Booth investigate a body that was found in a crater, evidence suggests that it had been in outer space.

Potentially radioactive remains emit a green glow at the crime scene.

Brennan and Booth investigate a small skeleton assumed to be that of a 10-year-old girl; Brennan's father (Ryan O'Neal) reappears in her life to deliver information from her past.