The ultimate aim of any doctoral degree is the generation of new knowledge. The challenge for the novice researcher however is not just explicating an answer to an existing gap in the evidence but explaining the exigency of this elusive within what is established. In order to do this, the social sciences’ student scaffolds their study in what is known as the ‘conceptual framework’. Yet, as evidenced by the ambiguity the term engenders, the conceptual framework is in itself an enigmatic aspect of doctoral study. Speaking to the challenges of philosophising one’s framework and choosing the ‘correct’ concepts on which to construct it, this article employs the stages of death and dying (Kübler-Ross, 1969) to describe one novice researchers journey towards understanding the nature and function of the metacognitive medium that is the conceptual framework.