Eight months before the present narrative, Bud agrees to a blind date arranged by his office mate, Tuan. Two years have passed since his ex-wife left him for another man, and his New Year’s resolutions to transform his life—learning Japanese, exercising, meditating, online dating—collapsed after a single day. On a cold, rainy Sunday evening, Bud arrives early at a Brooklyn bar with flowers, but his date is 45 minutes late. When an auburn-haired woman finally enters, Bud fantasizes about an entire life with her before she even reaches him. As they begin to speak, his fantasies leak into his words, resulting in numerous faux pas, including calling her by the wrong name.

The woman, Diane, apologizes and explains she cannot stay—her old boyfriend just called wanting to reconcile. When Diane notices the flowers, Bud awkwardly improvises that they are for the bartender, who accepts them with confusion. Diane’s ex-boyfriend, who has been waiting outside, enters the bar. After they leave together, the bartender gives Bud a free drink, saying that he has “never seen anything quite like that” (11).

After the disastrous date, Bud returns to his top-floor apartment in a townhouse owned by his friend Tim Charvat. Despite knowing he should sleep, Bud pours himself whiskey and scrolls through online videos for hours. Around 11 o’clock, he receives an email from his ex-wife, Jennifer Bennett (now Jen Finch-Atwell), informing him that her mother died and the wake is the following evening. The obituary reveals Jennifer has a daughter named Chloe.

Drunk and emotional, Bud decides to write his own obituary as a darkly humorous exercise, typing fantastical versions of his life story. He logs into his company’s secure publishing system and creates a layout with a photograph of himself sporting a mustache. When Bud reaches for his glass, he knocks it over. His hand strikes the keyboard, accidentally posting his fabricated obituary live to the wire service’s website with no option to delete it.

Bud reflects on his journalism career, which began after aimless post-college years spent traveling Europe and working odd jobs. His first reporting position in Concord, New Hampshire, sparked a genuine passion for newspaper work. After moving to Providence, he temporarily filled in for the obituary writer, who then died while on vacation. Bud took the position permanently and found meaning in capturing entire lives in limited space: “There was—is—a meaning to the writing of an obituary that transcends the filing of a daily news story. Whole lives. I found it strangely life-affirming, oddly thrilling, this thing where you tried, if only briefly, to capture the essence of someone’s life’ (22).

Bud acknowledges that while obituary writing once held deep significance for him, he now performs it poorly. Six months before the present narrative, Bud’s boss, Howard Ziffle, conducted a devastating employee review. Howard cataloged Bud’s recent errors, which included getting the deceased’s gender wrong, reporting the wrong age nine times, listing incorrect spouse and children’s names 14 times, and stating the wrong cause of death four times. Bud recalled the advice that Howard once gave him: that good obituary writers must keep their subjects alive in their minds.

Bud reflects on different kinds of obituaries, noting that he is not usually tasked with writing celebrity obits, which are prepared well in advance of the individual’s actual death. Observing that most journalists dislike obituary writing and that the art itself is “dying” as local newspapers shutter, Bud suggests that the significance of a well-crafted obituary lies in its ability to remind people of their mortality as they go about their daily routine.

The next morning, Bud discovers the world believes he is dead. Condolences (and “likes”) appear on his LinkedIn page, and he receives alarmed voicemails from his brother in China, Howard, and from his landlord, Tim.

At the office building, security guard Lev finds Bud’s keycard expired and calls for permission to admit him. Colleagues react with shock upon seeing Bud alive; the office manager, Phyllis, screams and drops her bagel when she encounters him in the kitchen. In their shared office, Tuan greets Bud with mock mourning, pointing out condolence flowers from the finance department. Bud learns that he accidentally attributed the obituary to Tuan by adding Tuan’s byline before the accidental posting. Tuan, who delights in goading Bud, reveals that Human Resources has summoned Bud for an urgent meeting and predicts that termination is likely.

That afternoon, an HR representative named Megan suspends Bud with pay pending investigation and a hearing within 10 days. She disables his email, removes his computer, and provides a termination packet covering benefits and a crisis hotline.

Later, Howard summons Bud to Gallagher’s bar across the street. Over drinks, Bud internally reflects on his history with Howard, recalling how he wrote the obituary for Howard’s late wife, Emily, and supported him through his grief. Meanwhile, Howard explains that company lawyers want to sue Bud for violating employment codes—the offense may constitute a felony. He warns that Bud’s journalism career is effectively over and expresses frustration at having to manage this crisis amid a cascade of catastrophic world news: “You know there’s, like, wars going on. Elections, wars, the polar ice cap is melting” (44).

Growing increasingly despondent over the state of the world, Howard reflects on journalism’s purpose, saying, “The facts matter. Because otherwise…otherwise [people’s] lives didn’t matter” (48). Referencing nuns who practice memento mori, remembering death to make life more beautiful, he challenges Bud directly, saying that nothing matters to him anymore and urging him to wake up. Despite his anger, Howard unexpectedly hugs Bud before departing.

After leaving Gallagher’s at 6:30 pm, Bud calls Tim, who is his friend as well as his landlord, and Tim invites Bud to come over. He then walks through Manhattan, passing through Times Square, Herald Square, and Washington Square Park before crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. He reflects on time’s apparent acceleration as he ages and his sense of failure as he observes the city’s energy around him. Arriving home, Bud encounters his neighbor, Julia Felder, a retired music teacher who scolds him about the obituary and advises him to marry. Her daughter wants her to move to Santa Monica, but she loves Brooklyn too much to leave permanently.

Inside Tim’s apartment, Esther, Tim’s housekeeper, greets Bud with harsh jokes and serves him wine and pasta. Tim, who uses a wheelchair due to paralysis from the waist down, has just returned from visiting his sister in Los Angeles. Bud confesses that Howard accused him of no longer caring and told him to wake up. He mentions receiving an email from Jennifer about her mother’s death and the wake scheduled for the following evening.

In an extended flashback, Bud meets Tim two years earlier while apartment-hunting after his divorce. Tim has fallen into a snowbank and overturned his wheelchair, but he declines offers of help and rights himself with remarkable strength. During the apartment viewing, the realtor tells Bud that he has shown the apartment to multiple clients, all of whom Tim rejected. He asks if Bud reads, explaining that Tim is “looking for a certain kind of tenant” (64). Later, over tea, Bud learns from Tim that the previous tenant, Wubashet Tilahun, was a philosophy professor and died in the unit while baking bread. Tim interviews Bud with probing personal questions about family, work, and life philosophy, and Bud unexpectedly finds himself opening up. He confesses that he no longer reads much and lacks culture, but Tim finds his honesty refreshing and rents him the apartment.

After moving in, Bud discovers that Tim hosts salons for struggling artists, produces independent films, and runs a wheelchair theater company called Remain Seated. Tim’s history includes Peace Corps service in Burkina Faso, a successful career at Sotheby’s, and a passionate relationship with Esme Kleinschmidt, a wealthy photographer whose father forbade their marriage. One summer evening, a month before his 31st birthday, Tim was riding his turquoise Vespa through Manhattan when a cab ran a red light and struck him, leaving him in a medically induced coma for five days due to severe brain swelling and ultimately resulting in paralysis.