Wade, the owner, teaches Tabitha the craft of taxidermy and is floored by her natural mounting talents. Tabitha finds his praise simultaneously flattering and strangely threatening; when Wade innocently tries one of her gloves she becomes so agitated that she storms out of the workroom only to find herself having to answer the door of the studio with her bare hands. An unexpected and evidently non-lethal encounter with Wade's beloved dog Buddy follows, and Tabitha begins to relax for the first time since the death of her mother's fish.

Taking joy in "making the dead live again," Tabitha begins to allow herself to be vulnerable around Wade. Her reputation for "lifelike" mounts doubles Living Dead's business and she is even offered a job at her favorite aquarium mounting exotic fish. But just when Tabitha begins to forget about her "curse," tragedy strikes again: she reverts back to her lifestyle of reclusion. Ultimately, Tabitha must choose between the safe harbor of her isolation, or the uncharted risk of living without fear.