Second grader Ali Tahir considers himself to be a dinosaur expert, but on a class field trip to the natural history museum, Ali keeps getting his facts wrong, and is embarrassed in front of his friends and classmates.

"Curator of paleontology Dr. Simon Nealy never expected to return to his Pennsylvania hometown, let alone the Hawthorne Museum of Natural History. He was just a boy when his six-year-old sister, Morgan, was abducted from the museum under his watch, and the guilt has haunted Simon ever since. After a recent break-up and the death of the aunt who raised him, Simon feels drawn back to the place where Morgan vanished, in search of the bones they never...

A billionaire who raided half the world for his Treasure of the Silk Road exhibit is stabbed on opening night with Kublai Khan's bejewelled dagger. Everyone suspects Mohammed Akbar, an Arab terrorist, but Lt. Donovan of the NYPD finds that a little pat. How about his partner?