On July 12, Detective Thomas Moore of the Boston Police Department arrives at morgue. The day is sweltering. He has been called away from his fishing trip to Maine to investigate a murder. He meets Detective Jane Rizzoli and her partner, Detective Barry Frost, in the morgue. They are all there to observe the autopsy of Elena Ortiz, the murder victim. Rizzoli is “the only woman in the homicide unit” (12) and seen as “bitchy” by her colleagues. Frost, by contrast, is “relentlessly cheerful.”

The medical examiner informs them that the victim’s throat was slashed and her uterus removed with surgical precision. The manner of death is identical to that of Diana Sterling a year prior. The medical examiner says that catgut, a form of surgical suture only used in foreign countries, was used in the surgical removal of the uterus before the victim was killed. Neither uterus was found at the crime scenes.

Detective Moore visits the most recent crime scene, Elena Ortiz’s home. He takes note of the fire escape ladder the culprit used to enter the second-story apartment. The murderer left size 8.5 shoe prints. He enters the apartment, thinking about how Detective Rizzoli is the primary detective on the case and how protective she is of her “turf.” He imagines that the killer took advantage of the hot weather to enter the apartment; when it got too hot, the victim opened the window. Detective Moore reflects on how the killer brought his own tools, sedated the victim, and “operated” on her for at least an hour before killing her. There was no sexual assault; Moore wonders if the killer is impotent. Then, the killer folded the victim’s clothes and left them on the dresser.

Rizzoli pages him and he calls her back. She tells him that she has found a series of similar murders in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, on VICAP, “a national database of homicide and assault information” (28). Moore says the murders cannot be connected because the murderer in those cases was killed by a surviving victim. Rizzoli says that the surviving victim now lives in Boston and works as a surgeon.

Dr. Catherine Cordell, a surgeon in the emergency room, races to treat a patient who has been hit by a car. Cordell works quickly to staunch the bleeding. Blood sprays everywhere as Cordell finds the source of the bleed. She gives the patient heparin to prevent a fatal blood clot. She manages to save his life. She is exhausted.

As she steps out of the operating room, Detectives Moore and Rizzoli arrive. Detective Moore tells her they need to speak to her about Andrew Capra, the murderer she killed in Savannah. Cordell speaks with Rizzoli and Moore in the office she shares with her partner, Dr. Peter Falco. Cordell feels vulnerable and out of sorts at the prospect of talking about such a traumatic experience. Moore explains they need to talk to her about Capra because there have been two murders with similarities to Capra’s crimes in the Boston area. Cordell insists she never told anyone about her case, not even her family. She has never heard of the two Boston victims.

Cordell finds Moore “quiet and gentle” (46) and non-threatening. In contrast, Rizzoli is much harsher in her questioning of Cordell. She asks Cordell about her move to Boston. Cordell says she wanted to leave Savannah after her attack and she has worked for two years in Boston. Rizzoli points out that a recent article about “women surgeons” in the Boston Globe which included Cordell says Cordell has only worked at the hospital for a year. Cordell admits she did “nothing” for a year after leaving Savannah.

Rizzoli aggressively questions Cordell about Capra’s attack. Rizzoli recounts how two years ago, an intern Cordell knew, Andrew Capra, came to Cordell’s home where they had a beer together. He drugged her drink, then tied Cordell up and raped her. He planned to extract her uterus and kill her like he did the other victims, but Cordell managed to shoot him. Rizzoli says Cordell needs to help their investigation to prevent what happened to her from happening to other victims.

Moore reflects that both Rizzoli and Cordell are survivors in their own way. Rizzoli “downplay[s] her own attractiveness” as a survival mechanism, whereas Cordell uses “withdrawal” and “detachment” to protect herself (49). Rizzoli feels Cordell is “cold” and unemotional. She feels that Cordell is not telling the whole truth about what happened between herself and Capra. Moore ignores Rizzoli and reviews the Savannah case file on Capra. Capra killed four women before attacking Cordell. Moore learns from the file that Cordell had been Capra’s supervisor at the hospital. She was about to fire Capra for repeated mistakes. Capra had gone to Cordell’s home on the pretext of talking about those mistakes and to lobby to keep his job. In her victim’s statement, Cordell says she is not sure exactly what happened because she had been drugged with Rohypnol, but “they told me I shot him twice” (53). Capra had died of gunshot wounds to his abdomen and head. Moore gets the feeling that there is something wrong with Cordell’s statement.

Rizzoli shows Moore a report on a hair found on Elena Ortiz that seems unusual. Erin Volchko, a forensic scientist, explains that the hair has an extremely rare genetic anomaly known colloquially as “bamboo hair,” which causes nodule-like defects in the hair. It can also cause extremely dry skin, a symptom that resolves in the heat and humidity of the summer. Moore and Rizzoli realize that “as long as this heat holds up [the killer] probably blends right in with everyone else” (58).

Cordell checks in with her colleague, Dr. Peter Falco. He invites her out, and she good-naturedly turns him down. She sees it as “a safe little flirtation” (61). Cordell asks if Falco has moved her lab coat or stethoscope in her office, because they are not where she left them. He says he has not. He asks why the police were asking about her. She refuses to tell him anything and returns home. She still feels “shaken” by the detectives’ interview. She bursts into tears as the grief and pain she has been holding back for two years comes out. She turns to an online support group in a chat room for women who have been sexually assaulted. Cordell posts that she is worried she will be assaulted again.

The murderer stalks Nina Peyton, a potential new victim, at her apartment. She has not left her house in weeks. He notes that she has kept all her windows closed despite the stifling heat. He hopes that she will leave a window open the next day when the weather gets even hotter.

A team of detectives have been charged with investigating the murders of Ortiz and Sterling, including Rizzoli’s rival, Darren Crowe, with whom she does not get along. Dr. Lawrence Zucker, a criminal psychologist, briefs the detectives on his profile of the serial killer. He says that the killer gets sexual gratification from using a knife on this victims. Rizzoli finds Dr. Zucker creepy with an “almost feminine” voice. She thinks he enjoys getting inside the killer’s mind. Rizzoli notes that the killer “hates women” and therefore “cuts out the one thing that makes them women,” their uterus (76). Zucker agrees and adds that the killer is obsessed with control. Moore says the only physical evidence they have at the crime scenes is the single strand of hair from Ortiz’s body. Zucker says he thinks the criminal is likely a medical professional. They do not know what connects the victims. They wonder if Capra told anyone about his modus operandi before he was killed, or if Capra had a partner.

Rizzoli notices a gold pendant in a picture of Diana Sterling. She calls the morgue and learns that Oritz had been wearing a necklace when she was brought in, but that the items had been released to the family. Moore walks by Rizzoli’s desk and notices that someone, likely Crowe, has put a tampon in a bottle of water on her desk. Moore takes it to Lieutenant Marquette. Rizzoli is angry and snaps that she does not need him to “fight [her] fucking battles for [her]” (86). She says that complaining will only make her more of a target as a “whiner.” Rizzoli feels a little guilty for yelling at him, as Moore has been sad since his wife died of a cerebral hemorrhage 18 months prior.

On a whim, Cordell goes to Elena Ortiz’s address. She sees Ortiz’s car parked in the alley with the vanity license plate POSEY5. She calls Detective Moore to tell him she was wrong about not knowing Ortiz.