Melisende Dulac’s life takes an ominous turn when she comes upon a grisly multiple car wreck and three shattered bodies on an isolated road. Near the scene, Melisende trips over a fourth body, that of a newborn girl lying a physics-defying distance from the wreckage. There is no one to claim the infant, nor a clear indication she was even part of the accident. The crash offers plenty of opportunities for an apprentice mortician --- but when the victims' bodies are stolen from her family's mortuary, Melisende is branded suspect number one. Then Portland lawyer Kendrick Pride arrives on the scene on behalf of one of the victim's families --- or so he says --- and Melisende begins to see that there's much more to this enigmatic figure than meets the eye.