The earth abounds with the troubled souls of the dearly not-quite-departed. No one knows this better than teenager Quinn Vanderfield, whose secret ability to see and converse with the captive dead has caused him to lead a solitary existence.His secure yet lonely routine is upended when Stephanie moves in nearby. She befriends him, challenging his self-imposed isolation, and requests his assistance in solving the decades-old murder of one of her ancestors. But when the demented ghost of the suspected killer stalks him, Quinn realizes his own sanity, his life, and the lives of those he loves are in peril.

A deranged dead man latches on to the only person who can help him escape his torturous earthbound existence, but he may kill the boy in the process.