Todd Evans starts out the 3rd grade year having trouble from the start with bullies and a mean teacher. He ends up getting beat up and humiliated in class by his teacher. The year is not going so well for Todd. He decides to withdraw inside himself and become invisible to the teacher and his classmates. This works too well and Todd finds himself alone without any friends. There is a large mansion at the end of one street all of the kids refer to as the castle. It is an abandoned house that they believe is haunted by the girl who died there. Todd goes there alone to see if the stories are true about the ghost, and also to try to overcome his fears. He leaves in a hurry when he finds a skunk in one of the rooms and is sprayed by it. Brittney Stewert is the prettiest girl in school, and Todd has a crush on her. He follows her two school one morning with his sister Destiny and stops a man from kidnapping her. But later has to rescue her from the same man. Todd and the made fight and the man ends up falling on a table from the second story of the castle and gets killed. Todd befriends an old man from Japan named, Mr. Kikuchi who teaches him how to defend himself and other lessons of life. Mr. Kikuchi lives next to the castle and was able to save both Todd and Brittney when he got them out of the castle when it caught on fire. Allan, Paul, and Marcus the school bullies who were expelled from school for fighting, see Todd at the castle and try to kill him and Mr. Kikuchi. It is the spirit of the girl who died in the house who scares off Allan who drops the gun he had and runs away. The police capture Paul and Marcus, but are unable to get Allan. The city purchases the land where the castle was and makes plans to build a park and a museum on the land. Todd at the castle land encounters Allan who tries to kill him with a knife. Allan runs after Todd put ends up falling on the knife and killing himself. The end of the book takes place with the park and museum finished and Todd with his new friends Lesly, Keith, and Mikayla reflect on the past year and everything they had gone through.