Chaim Skibelski was a successful businessman, husband, and father before he was shot along with the other Jews from his small village. Instead of resting peacefully in the World to Come, Chaim wanders the earth and encounters a world that is at once absurd and oddly familiar.

His adventures first take him back to his old house, where a Polish family has taken residence, and where he is invisible to all except their young, dying daughter, whom he befriends. When the moon inexplicably falls from the sky, Chaim is beckoned by the town rabbi (who has undergone a remarkable transformation of his own) to accompany him on an extraordinary journey, the consequences of which are greater than Chaim realizes.

He meets a talkative head that belongs to the soldier who may have shot him. He visits a grand hotel that caters to the dead with mysterious comforts. And he helps two eccentric holy men search for the fallen moon. Through it all, Chaim manages to find hope and compassion in the most astounding circumstances, discovering beneath the human propensity for destruction the promise of renewal.