In a world of monochrome shadows and crumbling books, can one dying man's lens bring everything back to life?

Clara is a ghost in her own reality, haunting the aisles of "The Spine"-an Edinburgh bookstore buried under a mountain of debt and the weight of her father's unfulfilled dreams. Between a mother lost in grief and a brother chasing trouble, Clara's world is a blur of red envelopes and cold stone floors-until Elias Thorne walks in.

A world-renowned photojournalist with a Leica camera and a terminal secret, Elias is a burst of impossible color in Clara's grey life. He offers a deal: he will buy one book every day if Clara can give him one genuine smile. But as Elias uses his lens to peel back the layers of her existence, Clara realizes he isn't just a customer-he's a man documenting the end of the world, starting with his own.

Caught between James, the steady archivist who has loved her in silence for twenty years, and Elias, the "vulture" of light who wants to burn her world down to see what grows from the ashes, Clara must decide if she is a relic to be curated or a woman ready to live.

Heartbeat On Hold is a poignant contemporary drama about the beauty found at the breaking point and the courage it takes to become a participant instead of a witness.

Will Clara find the heartbeat beneath the monochrome before the final shutter falls?