Meet Dinah, a disturbed young girl who has been sent to the small town of Bizenghast to live with her aunt following the tragic death of her parents. She is thought by her aunt to have some sort of mental illness, as Dinah believes the house to be haunted. Only Dinah is aware of the restless spirits, which only feeds the doctor and her aunt suspicions about Dinah well-being. The house was a mental hospital, then a school for juvenile delinquents. The ghosts know Dinah can see them and they wont leave her alone. A recluse, she sneaks out with her only friend, Vincent, and together they discover a lost graveyard. There they find a sunken mausoleum, where Dinah reads from a stone engraving. This act binds her to a contract requiring Dinah to release spirits stuck somewhere between an unhappy life and a peaceful afterlife. If she refuses, she will face an eternity of hell. So Dinah begins her quest of "cleaning" the vaults, crypts, and graves of lost souls, all the while struggling with the haunts at home and suspicions of her growing mental illness.