Pushing Daisies follows the offbeat escapades of Ned, a young man who during his childhood discovers he has the ability of bringing the dead back to life with a single touch. First, he resurrects his golden retriever Digby after he is hit by a truck, and later brings his own mother back to life after she suffers an aneurism. But there is a caveat to Ned's unusual talent. If something that he's revived remains living for more than one minute, then something of similar life value within the vicinity will die. Additionally, if he touches the resurrected a second time, that life will die again, but permanently - a stipulation which proves to be a great strain when Ned brings his childhood sweetheart, a beautiful girl named Chuck back to life.

Ned inherits his mother's baking talents, becomes a pie maker and opens a restaurant called the Pie Hole, which he runs with kooky waitress Olive Snook. The restaurant however, begins to fail financially and Ned finds an unusual way to earn money via Private Investigator Emerson Cod, who accidentally discovers Ned's gift and makes a proposal: to bring murder victims back to life, in order to inquire about the circumstances of their death. After collecting the facts, Emerson solves their cases and splits the reward money with Ned.