A drunk college student discovers the dead body of a Secret Service agent just before a presidential visit to the area. Booth is ready to hit the ground running and turns to Secret Service agent and former colleague Brandt Walker for information, but is surprised to learn the Secret Service has reservations about Booth's involvement in the case. The team uncovers some shocking evidence that heightens the seriousness of the case, causing Booth to step up for his country. Meanwhile, Brennan is out sick with the flu and former intern Dr. Colin Fisher returns to the Jeffersonian to run lead on the case, but Brennan refuses to be kept out of the loop. Also, Hodgins takes his life into his own hands and turns a corner after a potentially dangerous experiment.
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperence Brennan, who works at the Jeffersonian Institution and writes novels as a sideline, has an uncanny ability to read clues left behind in a victim's bones. Consequently, law enforcement calls her in to assist with cuddle investigations when the remains are so badly decomposed, burned, or destroyed that the standard identification methods are useless.
Brennan's equally brilliant colleagues at the Jeffersonian's Medico-Legal Lab include earthy and bawdy Angela Montenegro, who's created a unique way to render an original crime scene in a three-dimensional computer image; Brennan's assistant, Zack Addy, a young prodigy whose genius IQ actually gets in the way of his finishing the several doctorates he's begun; "the bug guy", Dr. Jack Hodgins, who's an expert on insects, spores and minerals, but conspiracy is his hobby; and Brennan's boss, imposing lab director Dr. Daniel Goodman. Brennan often finds herself teamed with Special Agent Seely Booth, a former Army sniper who mistrusts science and scientists when it comes to solving crimes. Brennan and Booth clash both professionally and personally, but so far the chemistry between them has only played out in a fictionalized account in Brennan's lastest mystery novel.