Cicely Belanger can see the dead, but that is the least of her problems. In her little northern town, she discovers an evil more malevolent than any ghost and she must face it with the help of her worst enemy, a failed faith-healer, and the spirit of a boy murdered fifty years ago. This is a coming of age ghost story. Set in the northern Maine town of Caribou, the main character first learns of her gift from her dead grandmother at her own funeral. She informs her granddaughter to tell no one of her gift and that she has the ability to help the spirits she sees, but she is free to deny them help if she wishes. When she discovers that a being from the French-Canadian tradition called Bonhomee Sept-Heures is present and active in her town, she decides it is time to help. Translated as "Seven O'Clock Man," the creature is visible to her. With the help of a reformed alcoholic failed faith-healer named Sylvio who has fought the beast before, she must stand against it before it destroys anything good that remains in her home town.