A B+ tree is a self-balancing tree data structure used to store sorted data such as indexes in a database. It improves upon B-trees by storing all data values in the leaves and using a linked list to connect all leaves. This allows efficient traversal and retrieval operations. Keys are stored in the internal nodes and direct searches to the proper leaf node. Data is inserted by splitting full nodes and redistributing keys. Deletion is done by removing keys and merging nodes if necessary to maintain the minimum node occupancy.