 Manuel "Manny" Calavera is a travel agent at the Department of Death in the city of El Marrow, forced into his job to work off a debt "to the powers that be".Manny is frustrated with being assigned clients that must take the four-year journey and is threatened to be fired by his boss, Don Copal, if he does not come up with better clients.Manny steals a client, Mercedes "Meche" Colomar, from his co-worker Domino Hurley.