18-year-old "George" (Georgia) Lass dies when a toilet from the MIR space station falls from the sky and hits her. However, soon she discovers the afterlife really does exist when she becomes a reaper - she helps in catching the souls of people moments before they're destined to die.
A crew of "reapers", whose job is to extract the souls of people who are about to die, find themselves confronted by change as their habitual meeting place (Der Waffle Haus) burns down the same day their boss and head reaper (Rube John Sofer) disappears (having "gotten his lights"). They soon meet their new boss, Cameron Kane (Henry Ian Cusick), a slick businessman who died falling from the World Trade Center (1973–2001) on September 11 attacks. He outfits them with color-coordinated Palm Treos and treats them to luxurious accommodations – teaching them, as List of Dead Like Me characters#Roxy Harvey (Jasmine Guy) puts it later, that "nothing we do here matters." This tutelage leads the reapers to perform such misdeeds as saving those they were to reap (Roxy), abusing immortality for financial gain (List of Dead Like Me characters#Mason, played by Callum Blue), letting a soul wander, instead of showing him "his lights" (List of Dead Like Me characters#Daisy Adair, now played by Sarah Wynter), and otherwise selfishly focusing on their wants.<ref name="film"></ref>