Eighteen years ago, two men found the decomposed body of a murder victim near a quarry off California's Highway 1. The "Jane Doe" case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department but, with little to go on, it remained unsolved. Now the men, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforcement, want one last shot at the case. Old and ill, they need someone to do the legwork for them, and they turn to Kinsey Millhone. Just to identify the victim, they say, would bring some closure. Kinsey, intrigued, agrees to work with them. But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer.