In the year since Tempe left behind a shaky marriage in North Carolina, work had often preempted her weekend plans to explore Quebec. But when an unidentified female corpse is discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in garbage bags, Tempe detects an alarming pattern within the grisly handiwork -- and she plunges into a harrowing search for a killer in the city's winding streets. With little help from the police, Tempe calls on her expertise, honed in the isolated intensity of the autopsy suite. But her investigation is about to place those closest to her -- her best friend and her own daughter -- in mortal danger.