Cameron is used to moving at a moment's notice because he and his mother are always running away from his supposedly violent father, but he is disturbed by their latest refuge, a creepy, deserted farmhouse, haunted by bloodthirsty dogs--and when he sees a boy hiding in the barn, and finds an old picture of the same boy, he starts wondering about the possibility of human ghosts.

"In the two years since his mother was killed in an automobile crash, Colin has been anticipating further disasters, writing down what to do in the event of an avalanche or mentally practicing the Heimlich maneuver just in case--but the real trouble is that his mathematician father is obsessed with a classic math problem and has a hoarding problem that is spiraling out of control, leaving Colin desperate to hide this chaos from his friends and everyone...