It's Pat's 'passing day' and he prepares himself for his family's annual pilgrimage to the site of his demise. But, realising that Alison is a conduit between the dead and the living, he begs her to pass on a message from the other side - a plan complicated when Pat realises a shocking truth about his marriage. Meanwhile, Mike struggles to come to terms with his bathroom-based paranoia, and Kitty tries to find out where babies come from.
The crumbling country pile of Button Hall is home to numerous restless spirits who have died there over the centuries - each ghost very much a product of their time, resigned to squabbling with each other for eternity over the most inane of daily gripes. But their lives - or, rather, afterlives - are thrown into turmoil when a young urban couple - Alison and Mike - surprisingly inherit the peaceful derelict house and make plans to turn it into a bustling family hotel. As the ghosts attempt to oust the newcomers from their home, and Mike and Alison discover the true scale of the project they've taken on, fate conspires to trap both sides in an impossible house share, where every day is, literally, a matter of life and passing.