Lily dies after a rapid deterioration. In the end, she feels relief after suffering and pretending to be strong for her family and friends for so long.

Lily experiences nothingness until she is materialized into a lobby, known as the Front Desk, where all souls are brought after their death to be judged and sorted. The lack of her heartbeat causes her anxiety, but she willfully calms herself and eventually marvels at the lack of pain and swell of energy she feels.

She is greeted by Siedah, a soul who works at one of the desks, who explains that the Afterlife attends to every belief system (or lack thereof) and all souls receive Judgment by the precepts of their belief system. In the case of atheism, they are judged by the moral values of the overarching force of the Universe. Every belief system has an arch, connected by the Universal Hall, that leads to their souls’ individual Paradise. The Afterlife also contains the Void, where souls go to stop existing, and Hell, where souls receive their punishments if judged to have led an immoral life. Lily is pleased that there is a system of justice. Siedah informs her she can choose which belief system judges her. Lily worries that her file—the one on her soul and all her reincarnations—will mark her for Hell. She then notices that all of her carefully chosen and expensively priced tattoos, such as one of the Evenstar and images of The Hobbit, are gone. Siedah confirms she can have them manifest after her Judgment, and Lily chooses to be judged by Universal Judgment.

Lily and Siedah leave and come across an old soul waiting in the lobby. Siedah explains that the old man is waiting for his wife, with whom he spent the last three lifetimes. The old man troubles Lily; she has never known such love in her past life or in the remnant memories of her past lives. She has always believed herself to be “too much” for others to know such love.

As they arrive in the elevator, they encounter Moura, a demon. Moura complains to Siedah about a group of souls who, despite receiving the judgment of their choosing, complained so much it derailed the entire Hell processing system. Lily, having worked in customer service her entire life, commiserates. They bond, and Moura and her colleagues invite Lily for wine if she isn’t assigned to Hell. On the way to her Judgment arch, Lily worries about her decisions in life. She walks through and sees flashes of her previous life, where she’d always tried to be a good person.

Lily appears in her own personal Paradise, where the house of her dreams, reminiscent of the hobbit homes in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, waits for her. She is greeted by her old cat, Max, who passed away when she was 23.

When she enters the house, she finds a picture of herself with her two brothers. The photo brings back one of the last memories she shared with her brother Ryan, when they discussed what he should do when she died and how he wants her to haunt him. She promises to do so. After exploring the house, she thinks about her tattoos, and they reappear.

After a few days of exploring her Paradise, Lily leaves, hoping to explore some of the other realms Siedah had mentioned. A gate appears before her home, and she encounters a hall of gates leading to other paradises. Another soul instructs her on how to reach the Universal Hall, busy with many souls from many different eras and ethnicities.

Lily explores the Hall, finding different arches for the afterlives of different belief systems. When she encounters the one for Heaven, she feels sick, as she recalls some of the feelings she associates with Heaven. She promises herself to stay away from this part of the Hall just as a man runs away from demons. As she recalls being told she was going to Hell during her last life, Lily decides to visit Hell and find Moura for that glass of wine.

Lily goes down the stairs to the realm of Hell and is amazed by the architecture of twisted metal, magma, and stone walls. When she arrives at the sorting center, she is bemused by how some souls remain entitled and belligerent even in death.

Moura spots her and introduces her to other demons. As they complain about the souls, Lily asks if she can help, as she’s noticed demons can talk back to angry souls. Befuddled, the demons agree, and they set up a makeshift desk for her that Lily cheekily names the “Hellp Desk.” Moura explains that of the nine levels of Hell, Level One and Two are dedicated to healing, while Levels Three to Nine are punishment levels of worsening degrees. Lily realizes that, unlike how she’d been taught while alive, the demons are kind and care for the souls.

An angry soul strides up to her, insisting he didn’t deserve to be in Hell, and Lily argues with him, speaking honestly and with sass until he leaves. A second soul arrives, and this woman’s file appears on Lily’s desk. When Lily touches it, she glimpses into the woman’s life and sees how she’d been overall vicious and cruel and how she emotionally abused and extorted her children. Unintimidated, Lily confronts her harshly and sends her to Level Five. Before she leaves, Lily reminds her that her kids still had hope for her before she died.

More souls come, and Lily listens and learns of their lives, guiding them with the level of firmness they require. Then, an orange file arrives that gives Lily an eerie feeling.

Lily sits back in her chair. The demons have given her a bat, which is now slick with a soul’s blood. The man had tried to deceive her, but when Lily had touched his file, she’d discovered he was a child molester. She’d beaten him with the bat on instinct and felt justified.

A demon named Krun checks in on her, as she is clearly rattled. He reassures her that the soul’s destination—Level Nine—will show him no mercy. On behalf of all the demons, he thanks her, as her help has smoothed out the sorting process considerably. When he invites her to drinks later, they discuss video games and their shared love of the game Invaders, an online multiplayer game where players attempt to build a colony on Mars while some players are secretly invaders who kill the humans. Trials are held to try and discover the culprit.

The demons invite her to play with them, and Lily accepts. As the demons become more inebriated, Lily finds herself attracted to the bartender, but rather than a fling, Lily discovers she wants a relationship that matters. The bartender offers her a free drink, knowing how valuable Lily’s help has been to the other demons, and commends her for being authentically herself in such a position.

The next day, Lily logs in to play Invaders with the demons. She is invited to the partially open lobby, and she begins playing. She chooses the username “Nearamir” instead of her usual “LilyPad” and tries to identify her newfound demon friends among the players.

When the player “FruitBat” speaks, she is attracted to his voice and says as much. On his side, the demon general Beleth, or Bel, is flattered by Lily’s anonymous appreciation and is the only player to understand that her username is a bad joke on Faramir’s name, a character from The Lord of the Rings. He and Lily flirt throughout the game, and he realizes she’s a mortal soul rather than a born demon. Their senses of humor align, and Bel eventually deems Lily his “nerd wife.”

After the game, Lily contemplates that while she had fun, she still struggles with the idea of eternity in the Afterlife, and decides she simply needs time to sort out her feelings.

Lily discovers a bustling coffee shop one day and meets its owner, the goddess Persephone. Though initially surprised, Lily fumbles and makes a sex joke that cuts through the social tension.

When Persephone inquires about her day, Lily mentions wanting to help in Hell again, which surprises Persephone, since no mortal souls have ever wanted to help before. When she arrives in Hell, still befuddled after befriending a goddess, Lily offers to man the Hellp Desk again, for which the demons are once again grateful. Lily genuinely enjoys her time there.

Months of helping the demons later, Lily arrives in Hell one day to find that a permanent desk has appeared for her. None of the demons know how it arrived.

As she settles in, Lily ponders over her growing proximity to FruitBat and the delights she’s found in the Afterlife and her growing friendship circle. Lucifer, King of Hell, comes to her then to formally meet her. As they speak, Lily realizes again that, unlike the stories she’d been taught, Lucifer genuinely cares for mortal souls and for justice. When she bemoans how humans understand Hell, Lucifer argues there is some truth to what humans say, as they only recall the deep impressions of their incarcerations in Hell, which are then turned to beliefs. Even so, Lily apologizes on behalf of humans for thinking demons are opportunistic monsters. Touched, Lucifer leaves her, noting how exceptional she is.

Bel sighs as he contemplates all the paperwork he must do. He recalls his mother’s advice to find beauty even in hardship, and he and his cousin, Asmodeus, make jokes about their friend Leviathan’s recent memo asking everyone not to engage in intercourse in the office.

Bel’s friend Greg, the master of Level Nine, arrives and makes fun of Bel for his attachment to Lily in their ongoing Invaders game. Bel, however, does not take his growing relationship with Lily lightly despite never having met her. Lucifer arrives and oddly requests that Bel run an errand for him: Retrieve a sword forged by the Irish goddess Brigid in the weapons closet by the front gate and ensure that the “new addition” to the gate is faring well. Though suspicious, Bel complies. When he retrieves the sword, he witnesses Lily beat a mortal soul with her baseball bat and finds her glorious.