In the near future, privileged classes live and work "Inside" cities, while non-citizens scratch out a miserable existence "Outside" in a vast desert. People cannot leave their designated zones without special visas known as "papelles." When fraudulent papelles surface, Seattle investigator William Geld travels to Shanghai to ferret out the culprit and meets Maria Gonzalez, a woman with whom he has a passionate affair but breaks one of society's harshest laws: Code 46.