Skin is a work of art, a nest of capillaries, glands and nerves that both regulates and protects. It is our sensory interface with the outside world, the barrier at which our individuality - our self - ends. And even in death, something of that individuality remains...Still suffering effects of a near fatal attack, David Hunter has returned to the Body Farm in Tennessee, the world-famous facility where he learned his trade as a forensic anthropologist, desperate to prove that he's still up to the task. But while there a grisly discovery is made in a holiday cabin in the hills - a body, bound and tortured, and decomposed beyond recognition. Fingerprints found at the scene seem to identify the killer, but it soon becomes clear that nothing about this case is quite as it seems.Despite misgivings, Hunter is intrigued and agrees to help an old friend and colleague on the investigation. There are those who resent his presence, however, and Hunter begins to wonder if his entire trip hasn't been a mistake. But then a second body is found and suddenly his involvement is no longer a matter of choice. The trail left by the killer begins to point to an impossible conclusion and Hunter finds that nothing he's experienced before has prepared him for where it will lead...