Delia Ford is Port Kenneth's newest social media darling, a young woman with a camera and a habit of showcasing what she views as the best of the city's people in a social media series she calls Populated Portraits.

But Delia Ford is very much alone.

When an art thief breaks into the Woolslayer Art Gallery and steals all of her art—and only her art—and then inexplicably leaves some of it in public places, often with taunting notes attached, Delia fights back the only way she knows how: By engaging her thief in a game of cat and mouse that elevates the entire Port Kenneth art scene, including elementary school artists and knitting bombers.

People flock to Delia's cause: her parents and brother, her neighbor, city influencer Tess Cartieri, the cop working the case, and one Meter Shaikovsky, her casual man who offers more benefits than friendship—or so it seems.

By the time the art thief is revealed, Delia has become a force for change in Port Kenneth, and her world has become strangely populated.