Christian Orland has died, and everyone in his life is trying to get over it. Everyone that is, except for Woe, the sixteenth Fatality, who knows that she was assigned the wrong case when she stopped his heart. She resolves to try to solve how Christian's death ended up in her appointment book by teaming up with Alexi, another death, and several ghosts of Christian's past.
She meets her first ghosts as Christian's funeral. Unlike what she previously thought, ghosts are not spirits of the dead, but an encapsulation of a moment when a human heart breaks. Together, they go to check on those left behind--his brother Noah, the keeper of Christian's dangerous secrets, his girlfriend Melissa, who can't understand why she is the only one not being haunted, and his childhood friend Ellery, who he once swore he would love until he died.
Meanwhile, the other deaths are working on a plan to get rid of the appointment books to change the very nature of death, and Woe's appointment book, the first book to have ever been tampered with, is key to their plan. As Woe grows closer to solving the mystery of Christian's death, and ignores her main responsibilities, free will comes closer to being lost forever.