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| - Emily is introduced into the story when Victor Van Dort, a young man who has cold feet, just came from his failure of a wedding rehearsal in town. He wanders aimlessly into the dark woods deeper and deeper to practice his vows. After perfectly and confidently reciting his vows, he places the wedding ring on what he believes to be an uprooted twig; it is actually one of Emily's bony skeleton fingers. Emily then rises up from the ground as it begins to crack open and shake violently, the moonlight shining down upon her and tattered wedding dress glowing about her in the fog. Emily quickly pursues Victor until she catches up with him, and kissing him takes him to the Land of the Dead (which strangely is more alive and colorful than the mundane world of the living) after he faints. When he wakes up in the Land of the Dead the people (specifically, Bonejangles) reveal through song that before Emily died, she was beautiful and rich; however, she fell deeply in love with a mysterious and handsome, sophisticated man from unknown regimes. Against her father's objection, she and the man secretly planned an elopement in the woods. On the night of the elopement, she waited for her fiancé in the woods to leave with him, but when the man eventually came, he killed Emily and murdered her with a knife and stole the precious jewels and satchel of gold that she brought along with her as dowry. After her story was told, Emily give Scraps, Victor's long-dead dog, as a wedding present to Victor. Victor than tells Emily that she should meet his parents who are still alive. Emily and Victor got to the Land of the Living with the help of Elder Gutkecht. She loses her leg when dancing in the moon light when she and Victor went "up stairs" for a visit, but manages to put it back on. Victor tells Emily to wait at the graveyard while he goes to get his parents. After waiting for a while, Maggot (a worm that lives in Emily's skull; often reveals himself by climbing through one of her eye sockets because one of her eyes pops out) starts to doubt Victor's loyalty to Emily and convinces her to follow Victor's footprints to check on him. Emily soon found Victor with Victoria and begin to believe that he's cheating on her. She got even more angry when Victor tells Victoria that she's dead. Emily takes Victor back to the Land of the Dead and have an arguement with him. She went away in tears when Victor tells her that he'll "never marry [her]." Emily wondered if Victor does belong to "Little Miss Living." Maggot and Black Widow tries to cheer up, but Emily is still in tears. She was soon found playing the piano when Victor came and apologize to her. Emily refuse to listen at first, but the two eventually make up while playing the piano together. When the new arrival, Mayhew, tells Victor about Victoria's marriage to Lord Barkis, Victor left with Emily wondering what's wrong. Soon, Elder Gutkecht came to Emily with bad news: marriages lasted until death and since Emily is already dead, she and Victor are departed. Emily learn that Victor has to repeat the vows at the Land of the Living and drink the wine of ages in order to make their marriage official. Victor agrees to this and they got ready for the wedding. At the church, Emily was saying her part of the vows when she notice Victoria. Emily then had second thoughts because she knew that taking Victor's life will ruin Victoria's chance of being the lucky bride just as how Emily had her chance. Emily stops Victor from drinking the wine and reunite him with Victoria. However, Lord Barkis arrives to take Victoria away. Emily recognized him as the man who murdered her years ago. She protects Victoria from getting hurt while Victor and Barkis fight with a sword and a fork. When Victor got disarmed by Barkis, she steps in between them just as Barkis intends to stab Victor with the sword. She tells Barkis to get out, but Barkis mockingly propose a "toast" to her and drinks the wine of ages. Barkis then dies in front of them and the mixed group of living and undead take him away to the Land of the Dead to be punished. Emily gives the ring back to Victor and her flowers to Victoria. Emily then walks out the door and turns into thousands of butterflies, symbolizing that she had found peace, and the butterflies flow up towards the moon.
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