how does Request.QueryString work?

The HttpRequest class represents the request made to the server and has various properties associated with it, such as QueryString.

The ASP.NET run-time parses a request to the server and populates this information for you.

Read HttpRequest Properties for a list of all the potential properties that get populated on you behalf by ASP.NET.

Note: not all properties will be populated, for instance if your request has no query string, then the QueryString will be null/empty. So you should check to see if what you expect to be in the query string is actually there before using it like this:

if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(Request.QueryString["pID"]))
{
    // Query string value is there so now use it
    int thePID = Convert.ToInt32(Request.QueryString["pID"]);
}

A query string is an array of parameters sent to a web page.

This url: http://page.asp?x=1&y=hello

Request.QueryString[0] is the same as 
Request.QueryString["x"] and holds a string value "1"

Request.QueryString[1] is the same as 
Request.QueryString["y"] and holds a string value "hello"

The Request object is the entire request sent out to some server. This object comes with a QueryString dictionary that is everything after '?' in the URL.

Not sure exactly what you were looking for in an answer, but check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Query_string