The group (loosely modeled on the archetypes of characters from The Breakfast Club, i.e., a rocker, a nerd, a beauty and a jock) take Maddy on a tour of Hell.

For the most part, only the terminally ill and elderly answer Madison's surveys and they are charmed by her, so much so that she convinces them to commit mortal sins so they can spend eternity in Hell with her.

Madison becomes the top recruiter of souls for the damned and begins to collect an army of admirers and friends with whom she conquers all of the "bullies" of Hell including Adolf Hitler, Vlad the Impaler, Ethelred II and Catherine de Medici.

She uses her new-found army to beautify hell; Maddison then orders them to paint the bats to make them look more like birds, drain a lake of saliva, and so on.

Throughout the novel, Madison's interactions with the living as well as the dead are depicted as she tries to piece together the events surrounding her death, and figure out how best to cope with her dire circumstances.