
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.

The decaying corpse of the Venezuelan ambassador's son is found hanging from a tree.

Brennan and Booth travel to Washington state to determine how a human arm ended up in the stomach of a black bear.

Brennan identifies remains of a 6-year-old boy who went missing from a local park and determines that he was sexually assaulted before being murdered.

Angela and Brennan are caught in a melee at a hip-hop club, when a wall breaks open and reveals a mummified corpse and a stash of drugs.