Shark Girls is about two women whose lives are transformed by a shark attack that amputates a child's leg. It is narrated by "Scat," the older sister of the victim, now a reformed drunk and a "disaster photographer," alternating with the story of "Gracie," a casualty of a disfiguring accident, who becomes obsessed with "Shark Girl," as the younger sister is known, rumored to have supernatural powers, who at the start of the novel has disappeared.