An Englishman in Hollywood moves into the funeral business.

Dennis Barlow, an English poet whose speciality is plagiarism, arrives in Hollywood to stay with his uncle, Sir Francis Hinsley. Sir Francis, a long-time art director for motion picture productions is fired by his studio in an economy move and commits suicide by hanging himself. Sir Ambrose Abercrombie, leader of the British film colony, asks Dennis to arrange Sir Francis' funeral at Whispering Glades Memorial Park, the most exclusive Hollywood Cemetery. Whispering Glades is run by the Blessed Reverend Wilbur Glenworthy. Dennis gets a job with Wilbur's twin brother, Harry, as a preacher at The Happier Hunting Grounds, a pet cemetery; and he falls in love with Aimee Thanatogenos, a Whispering Glades cosmetologist who is wooed also by Mr. Joyboy, the chief embalmer. Aimee spurns both of them because of her dismay in learning that Dennis steals his poems and her disgust for Joyboy's gluttonous mother. She is still confused about what to do after consulting the Guru Brahmin and asks the Reverend Glenworthy for advice, but she is driven to suicide by embalming herself when Glenworthy makes advances to her. He has been plotting to disinter the caskets and launch them into space, thus freeing the cemetery for valuable land use as a senior citizen's home. He had planned to initiate this program with the cooperation of Air Force General Brinkman by using the body of an astronaut. Aimee's body is substituted for the dead astronaut and lifted into space on a rocket developed by a child prodigy. Dennis goes back to England.