Phantom children with sepia-toned skin play in the back yard of an aging apartment building and its adjoining antiques shop which is currently closed. Both the landlord Mr Williamson and a tenant named Ruth have mysteriously disappeared.
A man without a face in cahoots with the children, appears on the stairs. An evil presence has emerged from a photograph; something which has appeared in every photograph ever taken anywhere in the world, and is powerful enough to turn Sapphire and Steel into literal two-dimensional photographs of themselves.
Sapphire and Steel investigate strange happenings at a pawn shop. Children from the past are appearing, but how are these children connected to old photographs? What does the single tenant in the upstairs room know?
Who is the new Landlord? He confronts Sapphire and Steel but his face is not what it seems. He warns them to leave or suffer the same fate as the missing shop owner.
The missing shop owner and missing former roommate of the tenant are found in an unexpected place. Sapphire tries to contact the missing roommate. The faceless man intervenes.
Trapped Sapphire and Steel must use their wits and the help of the tenant to escape their prison and trap the faceless man and keep him from causing more harm.