
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 and Brennan look for a killer and a motive when it is discovered that a human skeleton is being used as a prop for a death metal band.

Brennan is suspicious when a Jeffersonian co-worker dies of heart failure; Cam tries to get her newly adopted teenager to stop smoking.

A friend of Booth's, Ken Nakamura, asks for help when his sister goes missing in Washington.

The body of a fraternity brother is discovered inside a rival school's mascot uniform; Booth tries to help his brother find a new job.