Summoned to an unnerving, abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr Kay Scarpetta is devastated to learn that the victim is Sal Giordano, an acclaimed astrophysicist - and a man Scarpetta once loved. The murder scene is bizarre, with a crop circle of petals around the body.
Scarpetta's niece Lucy believes Giordano was dropped from an unidentified flying craft. Scarpetta knows autopsies can reveal the dead's secrets, but she is shocked to find her friend seems to have deliberately left her a clue. As the investigators are torn between suspicions of otherworldly forces, and of Giordano himself, Scarpetta detects an explanation closer to home that, in her mind, is far more evil.
