diff --git a/nd2reader/__init__.py b/nd2reader/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf83a19
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nd2reader/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import array
+import numpy as np
+import struct
+import StringIO
+
+
+class Nd2Reader(object):
+    """
+    Reads .nd2 files, provides an interface to the metadata, and generates numpy arrays from the image data.
+
+    """
+    def __init__(self, filename):
+        self._filename = filename
+        self._file_handler = None
+
+    @property
+    def file_handler(self):
+        if self._file_handler is None:
+            self._file_handler = open(self._filename, "rb")
+        return self._file_handler
+
+    @property
+    def chunk_map_location(self):
+        """
+        The position in bytes from the beginning of the file where the chunk map begins.
+        The chunk map is a series of string labels followed by the position (in bytes) of the respective data.
+
+        """
+        self.file_handler.seek(-8, 2)
+        return struct.unpack("Q", self.file_handler.read(8))[0]
+
+    def read_chunk(self, location):
+        pass
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def as_numpy_array(arr):
+        return np.frombuffer(arr)
\ No newline at end of file