March in Montreal: It is a bitterly cold night and in the grounds of an old church forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan digs carefully. She is there to exhume the remains of a nun proposed for sainthood. But the body has been moved to an unmarked grave in a far corner of the cemetery. What will Tempe discover when the frozen ground finally yields to her tools? Another day. Another death. Death du Jour.

When the bones of a woman are discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery, Dr Temperance Brennan of the Laboratoire de Medecine Legale in Montreal is convinced that a serial killer is at work. The detective in charge of the case disagrees with her, but he is forced to revise his opinion.