The Doctor and Rose travel by accident to 1869 Earth, and find that recently deceased corpses are returning to life, in a ghostly way. A mortician and his assistant know of the problem, but to keep their secret a secret, they kidnap Rose, who witnesses them collecting one of their ghostly corpses. The Doctor then must rescue Rose, and help the ghostly corpses return to there their own universe. He is aided in this effort by the aged Charles Dickens.