Chapters 1-4 Summary

Temperance Brennan is an anthropologist who is on staff at the University of North Carolina with their anthropology department. Tempe also works with the Laboratorie des Sciences Judiciares et de Medecine Legale for the province of Quebec during the summer and school breaks. Tempe is currently in Montreal for spring break to assist in the application for sainthood for a nun who acted heroically during the smallpox epidemic in Montreal in the 1880s.

In chapter 1, Tempe battles the freezing cold to dig in an abandoned church to find the remains of Elisabeth Nicolet, a nun whose acts of heroism during the smallpox epidemic has made her a candidate for sainthood. Tempe cannot find Sister Elisabeth where she was supposed to be buried until an elderly nun informs Tempe that the body was moved shortly before a fire necessitated the closing of...