In the early hours of the morning, two men chase a pimp through the alleys of New York City and push him out a window. A coroner brings his body to the City Morgue, where prostitute Belinda Keaton identifies him as Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jones. She also recognizes the mortician, Chuck Lumley, but he nervously insists they could never have met because he is engaged. Later, Chuck’s supervisor reassigns him to the night shift to open a daytime slot for his recently-hired nephew. Chuck returns home to tell his fitness-obsessed fiancée, Charlotte Koogle, that he has to work nights. The next evening, Chuck’s eccentric new partner, Bill “Billy Blaze” Blazejowski dances into the office listening to a cassette tape player, and rambles about his various ambitions as an entrepreneur. On Chuck’s night off, Charlotte asks him to turn out the lights because she is self-conscious about the weight she wants to lose before their wedding. They begin to make love, but Charlotte becomes distracted by the neighbor’s loud music. Chuck approaches the neighbor’s door and realizes it is Belinda’s home. She agrees to lower the volume, but Charlotte leaves anyway, wracked with guilt from cheating on her diet. At work, Chuck tells Bill that he used to be an investment counselor on Wall Street before opting for a quieter job at the morgue. He later discovers that Bill has been using the hearse as a limousine service to make extra money. One night, Chuck becomes annoyed with Bill’s incessant talking and hurts Bill’s feelings, causing him to hide in one of the morgue drawers until Chuck apologizes. In the morning, Chuck finds Belinda sitting in the elevator with a bloody nose and attempts to help her, but a group of Girl Scouts mistake him for a mugger and beat him with cookie boxes. While Chuck ices his injuries, Belinda explains that a client abused her when she demanded her pay. As a result, she and many other prostitutes feel unsafe working without Franklin as their pimp. When Chuck tells Bill about Belinda’s accident, Bill suggests they run a prostitution operation from the morgue and call themselves “love brokers.” In the morning, Belinda visits Chuck and cooks him breakfast in her underwear. Over the next few weeks, Bill pleads with Chuck to agree to his plan. During Thanksgiving dinner with his mother, Charlotte, and his conservative future in-laws, Chuck receives a telephone call from Belinda, who was arrested for assault and will be taken to night court. The family insists on accompanying Chuck to the courthouse, where they watch as Belinda’s prosecutor lowers his pants to reveal the bite mark she left on his posterior for refusing to pay for her services. Charlotte’s mother faints, and Chuck’s family insists he move out of the building. Chuck later visits Billy’s apartment and consents to his prostitution scheme. In the morgue, Chuck proposes to only charge the prostitutes a ten percent fee for their management services, allowing the girls to keep more of their earnings. Over time, Chuck develops pension plans for the girls, who use the extra cash to upgrade their wardrobes and move into nicer apartments; Chuck, however, stashes his money in his kitchen cupboard. Eventually, Chuck becomes ill with anxiety, knowing that he is enabling women to have sex with strange and sometimes dangerous men. One night, Bill hosts a fraternity party in the morgue, and Chuck’s anxiety worsens when he discovers people having sex in the drawers. When he speaks to Belinda about the party, he realizes he has doubts about his own lackluster sex life with Charlotte. Later, Chuck and Bill take the girls to a hamburger restaurant and announce that they are now the franchise owners. Meanwhile, the two men who killed Franklin conspire to discover who has taken over his business. At a Christmas party, the girls express their gratitude to Chuck for improving their lives. The next morning, Chuck, still intoxicated, shows Bill and Belinda the ornate headstone for his father’s grave that he purchased with his savings. In Belinda’s apartment, she and Chuck admit their mutual attraction and make love. Afterward, while laying together in the bathtub, Belinda insists that she did not fake her orgasm. That night, Chuck enters the office singing and dancing with joy. When Belinda shows up for work, however, Chuck is offended that she does not plan to quit prostitution. Bill drives a teary Belinda to her assignment, but upon admitting that she loves Chuck, he gives her the night off. While Chuck works at the office alone, Franklin’s killers enter, tie him to a gurney, and begin to torture him. Meanwhile, Bill unknowingly brings two undercover police officers to the morgue, where they save Chuck by shooting at the intruders and arresting them, along with Chuck and Bill. When Charlotte visits Chuck in prison, she spits in his face and ends their engagement. Chuck and Bill’s lawyer informs them that the mayor agreed to restore their jobs in order to avoid a scandal during the upcoming election season. Chuck is relieved to return to his former life, but Bill wants to use his position of power to make demands from the mayor, and Chuck beats him up. Sometime later, he runs into Belinda, who announces that she has found work at a gentleman’s club and plans to move to a new condominium at the end of the week. Moments later, an apathetic deliveryman arrives with an order for Chuck containing the incorrect sandwich, for which Chuck demands a replacement. Bolstered with confidence, Chuck barges into Belinda’s club and runs into Bill, who was fired from his job as a towel boy moments earlier. When Belinda arrives, she immediately changes her mind about her new job. Chuck tells Belinda he loves her, and they kiss. The manager attempts to eject Chuck, Bill, and Belinda from the club, but Chuck pushes him into the pool and joins his friends as they run into Times Square.