The story is set in the fictional small American town of Coldwater where eight residents on each Friday begin to receive calls from lost loved ones. The dead are ringing home from heaven and the message they have for anyone prepared to listen is that "the end is not the end". Love is waiting and, as Albom writes, "A few words from heaven rendered all the words on earth inconsequential."
But all is not well. For one woman, the calls are no relief; they are merely torture, a prolongation of suffering. "Somehow, heaven was more comforting when it was only in her mind ... No more calls. No more defying nature, she told herself. There is a time for hello and a time for goodbye. It's why the act of burying things seems natural, but the act of digging them up does not."
And the phone calls from heaven also attract the ungodly. The phenomena become a TV sensation. "Whether heaven truly existed never entered the equation." Even worse, the story of the communications from heaven is a magnet for the atheists and non-believers, an angry and aggressive bunch of stereotypes who are the most unbelievable of all the characters Albom creates.
Much more effective, however, is the periodic inclusion into the narrative of the true story of how Alexander Graham Bell came to be known as the inventor of the telephone. A beautiful set of vignettes explain the inspiration behind invention and explore the fascinating relationship between the eminent scientist and his deaf wife. The blending of fact and fiction adds depth to the plot and inserts a sense of secular inspiration into what remains, at heart, a story of belief and faith in the existence of God.
So, if the phone calls from heaven are real, then what are the dead trying to tell us about the afterlife, and why would they choose a small town in the middle of America? If the calls are not emanating from a celestial resting place, then what or who is behind the mystery and what is the motive?