When Katelynn Joss returns from France in February 2020 to her childhood home in Toronto, it is not for a family reunion or a happy holiday. Nor is it just to sort out her recently deceased mother's possessions. Katelynn also finds herself sorting through the mistakes, outrages and deceits of her mother's life, as she writes the obituary. Alternatively nagged and encouraged in this task by her aunts, Agnes and Yolande, her mother's surviving siblings, Katelynn sets to work, every word sticking in her throat and stirring up a sandstorm of bitter memories. It takes her several weeks to sort out both the house and the obituary, which is finally published 4 ¿ months after her mother died.

But, once the obituary is officially printed in the newspaper, it turns out Katelynn isn't the only person who is glad her mother is dead. Among the obituary readers are two other people who knew the deceased well and rejoice that Abigail Melinda Joss is finally dead.

Obituary is a story of love, loss, lies, murder, escape and the sordid underbelly of privilege. As a global pandemic rages, each of the three people stuck at home has time to dredge up their memories and put Abigail under the microscope.