After the appalling death of Benton Wesley at the hands of Carrie Grethen. Kay Scarpetta, Lucy and Pete Marino are trying to live up to the old adage that "life goes on". They all think they are coping, but grief isn't so easily assuaged.
A distraction for Scarpetta and Marino is the discovery of a body in a cargo ship recently arrived from Belgium at Virginia's Deep Water Terminal in Richmond. Initially it seems as though it may be the decomposed remains of a stowaway, but Scarpetta's post mortem reveals neither a cause of death nor an identification. So the victim's personal effects and an odd tattoo take Scarpetta on a hunt for information that eventually leads her and Marino to Interpol's headquarters in Lyon.
At first the highly confidential information they receive seems incredible, a bizarre trail of conspiracy and deceit, but inexorably the facts reveal a web of privileged and criminal arrogance which puts Dr Kay Scarpetta directly in harm's way, and places her and those she holds dear at mortal risk.
