Carrie Lisbon knows how to dress a body, what kinds of flowers to use in funerary tributes, and which embalming preparations are best. What she doesn't know is how to navigate the social strata of Hope Bridge, the small town she now calls home.

Looking to escape the outdated and elaborate turn of the century mourning rituals that do nothing but fuel her anger about her husband's passing, Carrie moves to a village dominated by a rickety covered bridge, a social scene bent on keeping the status quo, and a sense of lawlessness that undermines her frail equilibrium.

When she's called to lay out the body of a young woman, Carrie discovers brutal injuries that contradict the husband's story about his wife's death. Instead of being accepted as a professional, and as someone who knows what she's talking about, she's rebuffed by the town's undertaker, dismissed by the sheriff, and pursued by the dead woman's husband.

Desperate to clear a friend of murder, Carrie finds few leads, but uncovers Hope Bridge's sadistic family secrets. Thwarted by ambiguity and indifference, she struggles with a dubious telephone system, her newcomer status, and multiple town intrigues in order to gain her place and catch a killer.