The book features the character Bee, who is a photographer and photo lab technician. She is just out of high school, and has taken a job at a one-hour photo lab in lower Manhattan. She has the habit of copying interesting photos that she develops. Bee begins to investigate some of her clients when she develops the pictures of several dead bodies. She begins to suspect Oleg Khatchatourian, a crime scene photographer, has murdered his wife when she turns up dead after Bee witnesses a fight between the two.