
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.

When the smashed remains of a famous artist are found in an impounded junkyard car, the team must race against the clock to find evidence of murder before the car is put on exhibit as the sculptor's ultimate display for the sake of his art.

A con man misleads the team during a murder investigation; Booth's younger brother, Jared, takes a job at the Pentagon; Brennan agrees to go on a date with Jared to a White House function.

While en route to China to identify prehistoric anthropological remains, Booth and Brennan are called upon to solve a murder in midair when the flight attendant discovers a fully cooked human body in the plane's microwave.

Brennan and Booth investigate when a skull and other skeletal remains are found in a nationally protected wooded preserve; Brennan's recently acquitted father (Ryan O'Neal) finds a job as a teacher.