In the book, Halber gives firsthand accounts of her interactions with amateur web sleuths, the background of websites such as the Doe Network and an exploration of the issue of the unidentified in the American medicolegal system.

The book covers the following topics: In an interview on NPR's On the Media, Halber told the host Brooke Gladstone that her interest in the subject was sparked suddenly.

Halber said, "I came across a photo in the Boston Globe — I think it was 2010 — and this woman was just really stunning — sort of auburn hair and these really beautiful eyes and this kind of Mona Lisa smile — and then I realized this wasn't a photograph.

That there were, by one estimate, 40,000 sets of human remains scattered around the country, literally stowed in the back rooms of morgues, bones in cardboard boxes, people who had been buried in potters fields.

[6] Maclean's noted that Halber covered the early days of amateur web sleuthing and that "her bang-on descriptions and recondite details are riveting".