A serial killer is strangling young women and dumping their lifeless bodies in the steep forested ravines of southern Indiana. With each corpse he leaves a calling card: a stone figureine wedged deep inside the victim's throat. FBI forensic anthropologist Christine Prusik saw such figurines placed inside the bodies of the dead years ago when researching in Papua New Guinea. Is someone trying to send Christine a message?

Lucie Blackman - tall, blond, twenty-one years old - stepped out into the vastness of Tokyo and disappeared forever. For months, the police's only lead was a suspicious message left with Lucie's best friend claiming she had joined a religious cult. The truth would prove much darker.

Sequel to Roots, depicting the history of African Americans since the Civil War to this day, told by tracing the lineage of one man.