
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.
A key witness turns up dead in a case for which Brennan is a juror, so the team works to discover what has happened.
The team investigates the murder of a food scientist whose body was put through a meat grinder and mixed into canned stew; Angela puts together a post-wedding bachelorette party for Brennan.
When a gymnast's remains are found in a park, Booth and Brennan discover she was living a double life; Cam confronts the woman who stole her identity.
The team investigates when the remains of a girl who died 18 years earlier are delivered to Brennan and Booth's house; Brennan dreams about Pelant.