Francesco Dellamorte is the watchman at the Buffalora Cemetery, where the dead rise within seven nights of their last breath. Dellamorte has learned that the only way to stop them is to split their heads open; a spade works, but dumb-dumb bullets work even better, and he casually uses whatever is at hand. Putting the dead back to rest is, he feels, a public service. One day, Dellamorte falls deeply in love with a mourner--a young woman burying her elderly but sexually tireless husband. When Dellamorte and the woman make love on her husband's grave, the earth moves... But when she dies, can Dellamorte kill her again when she inevitably rises? When eight motorcyclists, including the mayor's daughter, are killed on the highway, will Dellamorte be able to handle all the work... twice? And when Death scolds Dellamorte for killing the undead, is it he who starts murdering the living?