Thea isn't supposed to obsess about a murder in the basement of Seattle's Burke Museum, even though the victim was her absent boyfriend Paul's colleague — even though her gut screams at her to pay attention. So when the police connect Paul to thefts at the museum and the murder, despite his being two states away on a dig, Thea secretly launches her own investigation to clear him. Paul's stubborn refusal to give her any information doesn't slow her down, but an attempt on her life does. Coerced into running to Paul's paleontology dig in Montana for safety, what she finds there is far from a refuge. The levels of deception are more personal and extend farther than she could have imagined. The price of her pursuit of truth will be blood.