Honey bees are vanishing by the millions, and beekeepers from England to Australia are trying to figure out why before it costs them their livelihoods and the crops that depend on pollination. Journalist Martha Kearney introduces the investigation, which travels from California's almond farm belt to the flatlands of East Anglia and the Australian outback, tracking colony collapse disorder as it empties hives as far apart as Taipei and Tennessee. English beekeepers march on Parliament demanding research funding, arguing the crisis could outweigh the financial crash in its consequences. Scientists lay out competing suspects: a bee plague, pesticide exposure, poor nutrition from monoculture farming, or some combination nobody has isolated yet. The film also finds an odd beneficiary in Australian beekeepers, whose disease-free colonies let them profit by exporting bees to replace dying populations elsewhere. With honey bees responsible for pollinating more than ninety crops, from apples to cotton, the film treats the die-off as an agricultural problem first and a mystery second, one still without a confirmed culprit.