The Graffiti Genius is a bittersweet romantic tale of what inspires a person. It is also a mystery mingled with suspense. Its setting of abandoned warehouses is as much a part of the story as its three main characters: a young woman unaware of her power as a muse, a gifted, young, Hispanic artist who portrays her, and an art conservator more used to salvaging multi-million dollar masterpieces than graffiti in a setting filled with waist-high weeds, drug deals, and homicides. The youthful artist finds his inspiration in the shy but irresistible model, and the art conservator finds her inspiration in discovering their identity while she neglects her restoration of a masterpiece. The artist also wrestles bitterly with his fathers murder as an innocent victim in a South American drug war, his familys journey to America where they struggle to survive, and his desire to join his brother, who has stayed to fight against the drug lords in his native land. As for the art conservator, she finds her toughness tested by the artists lack of loyalty to his talent and the looming demolition of the warehouses that will pulverize his paintings. Desperation makes her more ingenious in her quest to spare his finest works. In such a deadly setting, though, her efforts turn into a race to save the muse, the artist, and his art from violent forces threatening to put an end to all of them.