Protesting the Smithsonian’s retention of Native American remains, conservator Henry Highhawk commits an act of shocking defiance—sending a colleague her ancestors' bones. Arrested by Tribal Police Officer Jim Chee, Highhawk's activist stunt seems open-and-shut. But when Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn takes on a nearby murder case involving a meticulously scrubbed victim, the two investigations collide. Highhawk is tangled in a conspiracy far deeper than antiquities theft, forcing Chee and Leaphorn to unravel a mystery that reaches from the Navajo Reservation straight to the halls of power in Washington, D.C.