The Coffin Dancer, America's most wanted hit man, is back. He's been hired by an airline owner who wants three witnesses taken care of before his trial, and has assassinated the first, a pilot, by blowing up an entire plane.

Enter quadriplegic ex-cop Lincoln Rhyme, who can find enough forensic evidence to hang a man in the smallest debris, and his assistant Amelia Sachs. Their job is to keep the remaining two witnesses safe, and to find the Coffin Dancer before he finds them. Because when he finds them, he will kill them... and anyone else who tries to get in his way.