A series is set in rural England and the manor of the spinster Miss Rose Farnaby, a cantankerous and lonely lady nearing the end of her life. Over the years a distrust has developed between Miss Farnaby and her staff of Bert and Alice Finch. Bert is the gardener and grounds keeper and his wife Alice serves as the cook and housekeeper. Even though they and Miss Farnaby grew up together at the manor, a gap has continued to widen in their relationship. Miss Farnaby, thinking that their loyalty is only an effort to insure she will leave them a good pension when she passes on, while they think she is distancing herself in order to cut them out of her will completely.

Into this situation comes Mulberry, the strange and mysterious new companion for Miss Farnaby, who turns everyone's lives upside down by his wit, his manner, and his determination to "change the old routine" and make the gloomy manor a fun place to live. But Mulberry is not what he seems to be. He is in fact the son of Death, and has been sent to the manor to collect Miss Farnaby for his father, the Grim Reaper, and escort her into the next world. But the plan doesn't quite work out as his father wanted it to since Mulberry becomes attached to Miss Farnaby and is determined to make her life happy and enjoyable.