This book starts out with a boy named Thomas Ward. He is the seventh son of a seventh son. Then the local spook takes him into apprenticeship. The Spook's job is to "protect farms and villages from things that go bump in the night. Dealing with ghouls, boggarts, and all manner of wicked beasties." During his training he meets a girl named Alice and his life goes downhill from there. Including accidentally resurrecting an evil which! Can the spook teach Thomas enough to stay alive?