As Frank prepares his boss's obituary, he discovers that his mentor was far from the saint he believed him to be. Frank's search for answers exposes hidden secrets about himself and his coworkers, proving his maxim: "You never know who you are until you're dead."
Each week on "The Dead Beat" Frank uses his latest obituary assignment to get a bead on his own messed up life: fighting to save his job from the conniving Society Page editor; dealing with an angry ex who hates him but won't let go; trying to control his feelings for an adorable co-worker who chooses the moment of Frank's promotion to swear off sleeping with her bosses; dealing with the shenanigans of his legendary war-correspondent father. The notable dead are a peanut gallery for Frank's daily travails - endowing his petty issues with larger-than-life, comically-skewed significance.