Transforming a ramshackle mansion into a dream house has become a nightmare for onetime Hollywood producer Nedra Nolan, whose newly purchased fixer-upper in Pico Mundo has sent a string of spooked contractors scurrying off the job, claiming the place is haunted. Who’s she gonna call? Her friend recommends Odd Thomas, the mild-mannered young man with a gift for communing with ghosts who won’t rest in peace. With his soul mate and sidekick, Stormy Llewellyn, in tow, Odd agrees to investigate the eerie incidents. But his spirit-seeking style is cramped by the obnoxious TV ghost hunters Nedra hires to flush out the troublesome phantoms with elaborate gadgets.

As night falls and a raging storm traps them all in the mazelike manse, Odd tries in vain to scare up some lost souls. But instead, something more terrifying than any apparition—something with flesh, blood, and teeth—makes its sinister presence known. And with nowhere to hide, Odd and his fellow hunters suddenly become the prey.