His family murdered in the dead of night, a toddler escapes death by crawling into a nearby graveyard. Now, with ghosts raising him as one of their own, Bod must learn all he can in order to avenge his parents death.
Plot Synopsis
A man named Jack enters a home and kills the mother, husband, and elder sister that live there. As he makes his way to the baby's room, to finish off the only remaining family member, he finds the crib empty. The baby had woke up in the middle of the night, wandered out to the streets, and into the nearby graveyard. In the graveyard the baby is met by the ghosts of Mr. and Mrs. Owens, a kind, elderly couple of spirits. The child's newly dead family appears and asks the Owens' to watch after him and protect him from Jack, who at this point is just outside the graveyard. After much deliberation with the other ghosts in the graveyard, Mr. and Mrs. Owens agree to take care of the child and name him Nobody Owens, or Bod for short. In doing this they also blessed Bod with the Freedom of the Graveyard.This freedom gives him the ability to walk through walls and turn invisible while in the graveyard. Realizing that as ghosts they can't leave the graveyard or physically interact with the world, the Owens family enlists the help of Silas, a resident of the graveyard who is neither dead nor alive. Because of his unique position, Silas can go out and bring back food for Bod and any other resources a child might need. At approximately four years old Bod begins his education and has lessons in reading and writing from different ghosts in the graveyard. Around this same time Bod makes his first living friend, Scarlett. When Scarlett tells her parents about Bod they assume he is an imaginary friend she plays with in the graveyard. On one of Scarlett's visits to the graveyard, she and Bod decide to visit the oldest being in the graveyard. Bod leads Scarlett beneath one of the mausoleums and they come face to face with a snake-like being called the Sleer. The Sleer guards three treasures and does its best to frighten all those who come to take the treasures away. After realizing that the Sleer could not hurt them if they weren't afraid, Bod and Scarlett return to the surface to find the graveyard filled with police. Having been gone for so long, Scarlett's mother had called the cops thinking she'd been kidnapped. Scarlett returns a few days later to tell Bod goodbye since she's moving with her parents to Scotland. Two years later, Silas leaves the graveyard for an extended period of time and has his fried Miss Lupescu watch out for Bod. Bod doesn't like her because she makes him eat homemade veggie dishes and makes him learn how to call for help in all the languages of the world. One night Bod sneaks away and falls asleep next to a ghoul gate. He is then captured and taken hostage by ghouls only to be rescued by Miss Lupescu in a less than conventional manner. At eight years old Bod meets Liza Hempstock. Liza is a witch who was buried just outside the graveyard without a headstone. Bod feels bad for his new friend and decides to get her one. Bod understands the concept of money and having none of his own, decides that the best option would be to take one of the treasures from the Sleer, the brooch, and use it as a means to get money for a headstone. With brooch in hand, he leaves the graveyard for the first time. Bod finds himself at a pawnshop trying to sell the brooch. The pawnbroker realizes that the brooch is part of some ancient treasure and tries to get Bod to lead him to the Sleer's layer. Bod refuses and the pawnbroker locks him in the back room of the shop. From there Bod overhears the pawnbroker talking to his business partner about how a man named Jack (the killer) who came by looking for a kid like Bod and he still has Jack's business card. The pawnbroker and his friend let there greed get the best of them and begin to argue over who gets a greater share of the brooch. They start fighting and both end up unconscious on the floor. Liza, luckily for Bod, had seen him leave the graveyard and followed him to the pawnshop. She helps him turn invisible to help him avoid the pawnbroker, thus allowing Bod to pick the lock on the door and escape back to the graveyard. Later on Bod makes Liza a headstone with paperweight and paint. Two years after that Bod experiences a ghost holiday, the Danse Macabre. On this day the dead can leave the graveyard and dance with humans, but on the next day the living will forget it happened and the ghosts won't talk about it. Shortly after the Danse Macabre, Bod learns about his family's murder and that the killer is still after him. With this new found knowledge, Bod is eager for revenge. He has Silas sign him up for regular school, with the stipulation of avoiding any and all unnecessary attention. Bod is unable to abide by this condition after encountering a couple of bullies at school. He uses the skills he learned in the graveyard to stop their antagonizing ways. In doing so, Bod becomes the center of attention and and manages to get arrested. Silas rescues him and they return to the graveyard with the understanding that Bod will stay close to the graveyard from now on. At age fourteen all of the knowledge Bod has accumulated comes to a head. Individuals from Bod's past return to his life and as one tries to aid him in his quest for revenge, the others try to deceive him. This all culminates in a battle in the graveyard, with an ending you won't see coming.