At the tender age of nine, young Ned had to suffer the trauma of seeing his beloved dog run over and killed as it bounded across the road. Fortunately for Ned, his suffering was short lived because when he touched the lifeless body, that life returned and the dog jumped up and ran on.

Unfortunately, as Ned discovered and experimented with his new 'gift', he also found that it had its limitations and its side effects. You see, its all very well bringing something, or someone back to life, but that upsets the natural order of things and if something or someone is brought back to life for more than 60 seconds, then something or someone will have to take its place.

There is a second, perhaps even more onerous side effect of this 'gift'. If Ned touches someone and they come back to life, he can't touch them again - ever. If he does, they go back to being dead. Permanently.

He discovered both of these side effects on the day his mother collapsed dead at home from a brain annurism. Ned touched her and she came back to life. Sixty seconds later, he witnessed the death of the person that had to replace her. That person was the father of the girl that lived across the road. Of course, soon after, he touched his mother again and she went back to being dead.

On the day of the funerals, Chuck and Ned meet, and Ned experiences his first kiss. However, with the death of one each of their parents, they both moved away, seemingly never to come across each other again, until Chuck is murdered and Ned wakes her up. So the story begins......