Annie Browne transfers to a new school and is afraid she won't make friends. On the first day, outcast Elsie latches on to Annie and insists they be best friends. Except Elsie is not the kind of friend Annie wants. She lies and tattles and is super possessive and mean. When Elsie gets sick Annie becomes friends with the other girls in her class and they ostracize Elsie when she returns. The girls are bullies to Elsie and each other. When the Spanish Flu hits their town they start attending funerals for the sweets and cakes. One day they end up at Elsie's funeral without realizing it. Then after an accident in the graveyard Elsie starts haunting Annie. She makes her do and say things she doesn't want to do and her family thinks she is going crazy. So Annie ends up in a convalescence home where Elsie continues to wreck havoc. Luckily Mrs. Jameson is one of the residents and has experience with ghosts. She helps Elsie move on.

I disliked all the girls in this book so much that I thought they deserved to be haunted. They were all bullies and mean beyond the typical way girls are mean to each other. Annie may not have meant to be mean but she never hesitated to join in the games the other girls thought up. Everyone was thoroughly unlikeable and I wouldn't have finished the book if it hadn't been an award nominee.