The Emerald Archive is a novel in verse about a Jewish-Iranian emigre family living in Manhattan. The book is a theme and variations. It opens with a three-page prose "theme" that summarizes the plot of the entire book. The remaining pages are a series of poems that function as a collection of variations on the theme. The story unfolds through the poems. The final page, in prose, ties together the themes of the book.

The major characters of The Emerald Archive include a high-earning dental surgeon and his depressive wife, a gay librarian, an accounting student, a stripper, a concert pianist and a Park Avenue psychoanalyst. There are numerous minor characters.