"A Friend of the Deceased" is a story set in Kyiv, Ukraine, where the protagonist Anatoli is a penniless unemployed translator whose wife is leaving him.
One day, Anatoli meets his former friend Dima, who offers him one thousand dollars to commit perjury so that his boss can get a divorce from his wife. Dima also suggests that Anatoli hire a hitman named Kostia to assassinate his wife's boyfriend.
Despite being drunk, Anatoli agrees to the deal. However, he soon regrets his decision and decides to put the contract on himself instead.
Things take a turn when Anatoli meets a prostitute named Vika, also known as Lena, and changes his mind. He hires a killer named Ivan to protect him, who ends up killing Kostia.
As the story unfolds, Anatoli learns that he was actually married to a woman named Marina and had a baby boy. Feeling guilty, he seeks out Marina to sympathize with her.