Dying follows the very individual members of the Lunies family, who haven’t been a family for a long time. Lissy is quietly happy about her demented husband Gerd slowly wasting away in a home. But her new freedom is short-lived: diabetes, cancer and kidney failure mean that she doesn’t have much time left either. Son Tom, a conductor in his early 40s, is working on a composition called ‘Dying’, while at the same time being made the surrogate father of his ex-girlfriend’s child. And Tom’s sister Ellen starts an affair with the married Sebastian, with whom she shares a love for alcohol. As Death finally turns up on the doorstep, the estranged family members finally meet again.
