Tired of continually having his feelings hurt by popular students and bullies, fifth-grader Nathan agrees to try an experimental formula, Hurt-Be-Gone, and becomes a half-dead zombie, a condition which, he soon discovers, has some real advantages.

Following a difficult freshman year, Scott Hudson is hoping that sophomore year will be easier, but after a disaster of a first week he finds himself faced with new challenges--including a particularly demanding English teacher, a school board member whose budget cutting is covering up a crime, and the discovery that his friendship with Lee, the Goth girl he met last year, is turning into something else entirely.