Pushing Up Daisies

As a child, Ned revives his mother after she dies of an aneurysm. This act triggers a life-balance rule: reviving someone drains life from another nearby, and the mother later dies permanently after kissing him goodnight.

The revival causes the death of Chuck's neighbor and childhood sweetheart's father that same night. The tragedy binds Ned's fate to Chuck's family and sets the stage for their lifelong connection.

Ned is sent to boarding school by his father, separating him from Chuck. Chuck remains with her agoraphobic aunts, Vivian and Lily, who move in to care for her after the family tragedy.

Ned grows into a pie-maker and opens a restaurant called The Pie Hole. Olive Snook works there as a waitress and quietly pines for him, while the business struggles financially.

Private investigator Emerson Cod accidentally discovers Ned's ability to reanimate the dead. He proposes a plan: Ned will temporarily revive murder victims to help him investigate their deaths and split the rewards.

The scheme works until they find out Chuck has been murdered. Ned revives her but cannot bring himself to let her die permanently, and he and Chuck fall in love again. They move in together, though they can never touch without danger.

Chuck joins Emerson and Ned in investigating deaths for reward money, starting with her own murder. The trio uses revived victims to uncover clues and solve cases.

Meanwhile, Emerson searches for his missing daughter, who was taken away by her mother. This personal quest underpins his motivation throughout the series.

After meeting a publisher of pop-up books, Emerson is inspired to create and publish his own pop-up book. He hopes the book will help his daughter find her way back to him.

Chuck struggles to keep the secret of her revival from her aunts, who gradually come to accept that she is alive. The family dynamics begin to shift as the truth surfaces.

It is revealed that Chuck is Lily's daughter from Lily's affair with Chuck's father, while he was engaged to Vivian. This revelation reshapes family loyalties and Chuck's sense of belonging.

Ned revives Chuck's father to ask him questions about the past. Chuck tricks Ned into thinking he touched her father a second time so she can keep him in her life, leading to complex family dynamics.

Chuck tells her father she would rather remain in town with Ned, prompting him to travel the world alone. The relationship between Chuck, Ned, and Chuck's father remains tense but functional.

In the epilogue, Emerson's daughter returns to him, and Chuck lets Lily and Vivian know she is alive. Olive falls in love with Randy Mann, a taxidermist friend, and they open The Intrepid Cow, a restaurant dedicated to macaroni and cheese.