Tempe digs in the cold, damp pit. The soil begins to yield ash and cinders. Her trowel uncovers the bone of a child no more than two years old. Something savage happened in this village twenty years ago. And something savage is happening today. Four girls are missing from Guatemala City, including the daughter of a high-ranking government official. When a young archaeologist is brutally murdered, Tempe realizes that she may be the next victim in a web of intrigue that connects the historical and contemporary murders.