Simon Shaw, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and forensic historian, encounters his oldest corpse yetUwharrie Man, who died fourteen thousand years ago on the banks of Badin Lake in North Carolina. A controversy stirs up over the body, one that Simon realizes is not merely academic when his friend, archeologist David Morgan, is murdered. Simon is convinced that Morgan died because he came between factions struggling for control of the bones, but police sergeant Otis Gates disagrees. Simon single-mindedly pursues his friends killer, whose identity is a shock to everyone, especially Simon himself.