Here Lies … is the story of six women who bond after finding out they are deceased and now live in a cemetery. Each one has a question for St. Peter, whom they assume will show up eventually, and each one, in the bonding and meshing they do with one another, finds a resolution that changes the components of their soul. Marybelle Varney, irreverent and self-assured, has gathered wisdom both from living a full life with all her own choices and from paying attention. She becomes the leader of the pack as they wait for St. Peter.
Marybelle, ninety when she dies, is searching for John, her mate of 41 years, who died 29 years before she did. Emma, mousy and semi-hysterical, wants to know why she lived such a boring life and what happened to her brother, David, who committed suicide when he was a teenager. Greta, who had been promiscuous her whole life, knows she’s going to hell and, extremely nervous, wants only to head for Dante’s Inferno to get it over with. Sister Dorothy wants to know where the Catholic Heaven is. Rachel, an animal rights activist, wants to know if there’s an animal heaven and will she ever see her former pets. Monica, a continually crabby and bad tempered woman who was a perpetual victim, wants to know why she lived such a lousy life.
St. Peter makes an appearance and, one by one, answers all of the questions put before him by the women. He explains the workings of the universe after one drops their body, in an intelligent and capable manner. Once that chore is completed, he begins to take on the next, the one most dreaded by all of the women; he shares with each what awaits her now.