Anthropology professor Luke Littlefield has the unfortunate luck to witness a situation that later turns out to be a murder. As a witness, Luke finds himself involved with the investigation when he is deputized by Mary Brooks, the medical examiner. Luke's personal life takes on a new twist when Scottish action hero Ian Stoddard appears back in Hollywood. As the murder investigation progresses, Luke is introduced to homicide detective Paul Johnson. When Paul teams up with Luke, it's not clear what exactly Paul is looking for. And when a mummified corpse turns up in Ian's home, a new mystery presents itself. Back in Luke's graduate class, the students are eager to take on the case study of a cold case from 1950. It soon begins to be clear that all three cases have something in common. As Luke navigates through the various twists and turns of the investigation, something unexpected is revealed about his friend, the octogenarian Norma Jean Baker.