A toddler wanders from the home of his murdered family up the hill to a nearby cemetery. With the killer, Jack, following his footsteps the boy is protected by the ghosts of the graveyard. He is adopted by a couple who never had children themselves and becomes Nobody Owens. The boy is given the Freedom of the Graveyard and a mysterious figure neither alive nor dead, Silas, becomes his guide to the world outside the cemetery.
Bod grows quickly in the eyes of the dead. He learns to talk and is educated by the ghosts. The cemetery no longer accepts new tenants, but a portion of the property is a nature preserve where families and couples come for picnics. Bod meets and befriends a little girl named Scarlett. He tells the girl about the ghosts who inhabit the graveyard, and though she cannot see them, Scarlett is fascinated. The two sneak into the oldest tomb on the property where they encounter the Sleer - a terrifying presence which is the impetus for Scarlett's parents refusing to allow her visits to the cemetery.
The boy continues to have adventures: he meets and befriends the ghost of a young woman prosecuted as a witch; he goes to school outside the graveyard, confronts the school's bullies, and triumphs; he dances the Macabray with Death herself; Bod lives a unique life with his dead, unchanging family. With Silas as the voice of wisdom and Mrs. Lepescu a grueling taskmistress Bod is given tools to survive both the world of the living and the world of the dead. He will need those skills as Jack has not ceased searching for the toddling boy who escaped.
Shaped by ghosts, goblins, friends and a haphazard kind of family, Nobody Owens must discover what makes life worth living. He cannot remain in the graveyard, but must move beyond the memories to truly live. Gaiman tells the tale of a child growing into a young man with a flourishing imagination, in a voice readers of all ages can enjoy.
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