
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.

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.

A skull smashes the windshield of a car driven by a group of teenagers on the freeway; a trail of suspects leads Brennan and Booth to a strange cannibalistic society; Cam suggests that Angela hire a private investigator to find her ex-husband.

Brennan and Booth investigate when a soccer mom is blown up in her minivan; the investigation uncovers that the woman was a member of the National Liberation Army.