In 1999, the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg is hit by an epidemic of suicide. The burgeoning hipster enclave rapidly becomes a macabre spectacle, witnessed and deftly described by Benson, a reflexively cynical Gen-Xer and New York transplant. As his friends kill themselves off and the "Bug" spreads to Manhattan, Benson forms a crew to clean up the mess of his adopted city, fighting against hopelessness. A testament to the human spirit, Killing Williamsburg follows in the haunting tradition set by Albert Camus' The Plague and Jose Saramago's Blindness.