Essence Hall is a brilliant, no-nonsense surgeon who believes in science, facts, and the cold certainty of life and death - but never in love. When she meets Angelo, a darkly charming man with a razor-sharp wit and a habit of showing up at the exact moment someone takes their last breath, she writes him off as an oddball. But Angelo isn't just strange - he's the Grim Reaper. And though he can't lie - an eternal curse tied to his existence - Essence refuses to believe him.
Intrigued by her unshakable skepticism, Angelo becomes determined to learn more about the messy, unpredictable nature of human life - and why a woman who holds so many hearts in her hands seems so unwilling to open her own. As sarcasm turns to sincerity and death's touch begins to feel a little more like a caress, Essence must face an impossible truth: sometimes love, like death, comes when you least expect it.
Max has spent the past several thousand lifetimes as a Reaper among humans and, despite the pleasures of a tidy country home with a well-dusted library and a finely tuned Harley, he's starting to get bored. His best friend gives him some advice: "Drink some scotch. Bed a woman. Join a rock band. Get it out of your system, and get back to your dutiful service."
Max tried, but he ended up getting drunk, marrying the girl in Vegas, and accidentally triggering a chain of events that could end with the destruction of the human race.
Now he needs to make things right again but the Reaper quickly learns that the magic of being human comes with one grim reality.