The protagonist of the story is goth teenager Phoebe Kendall who, along with her best friends Margi and Adam, attends the fictional Oakvale High School.

The world in which the story takes place is a strange one, with a supernatural phenomenon that causes dead teenagers to wake from their graves and move about like regular people—except they don't breathe.

The coach is openly hostile towards him and instructs the other players (in particular Pete, his lackeys Stavis and Harris, and Adam) to do their utmost to injure him so severely that he can no longer play.

Adam and another living boy, Thornton Harrowood, come to accept Tommy, but when the team plays their first match, they are harassed by anti-zombie protestors.

Founders Alish and Angela Hunter announce a work and study program open to all students, intended to improve relations between traditionally and differently biotic people.

Phoebe, Margi, Adam and Thornton are the only living students to sign up for the class (affectionately referred to as 'Undead Studies'), along with their differently biotic classmates Tommy, Karen, Evan, Colette, Kevin, Sylvia and Tayshawn.

It is revealed that Pete's first love, a girl called Julie, died suddenly of an asthma attack some time ago and did not 'come back'.

As a result of this, he harbours a deep bitterness and hatred for all differently biotic people, believing them to be unworthy of the second chance that Julie was denied.

Tommy takes Phoebe upstairs and shows her the 'Wall of the Dead' - a wall of photographs of zombie kids from all over the country.

Tommy invites Phoebe to his house so he can show her his blog on a website called mysocalledundeath.com, which he uses to get in touch with other undead teenagers and to campaign for rights for the living impaired.

Phoebe and the other living students are horrified, whilst the undead members of the class are unsurprised and seem quite aware that many people would like to see them destroyed.

Tommy and Karen then announce their plans to host a party at the Haunted House after homecoming, since many of the undead kids will be unable to attend the dance.

The homecoming dance seems to go smoothly, but unbeknownst to Phoebe and the others, Pete's next target is Tommy, and he plans on attacking him at the after-party (which he found out about by bullying the information out of Thornton).

He and Stavis (it is mentioned that Harris, after assisting in Evan's murder, has refused to be part of Pete's schemes any longer) follow the group to the Haunted House.

Tommy tells her that he died in a car crash that also killed his father, and reveals that the zombies with the highest level of functionality are the ones who are loved by their friends or families even after their deaths.

He realizes something is wrong when he tries to talk and move as normal and finds he can't, and then Phoebe tells him what happened.

Phoebe Kendall ('Pheeble') is one of the main characters in the books, she is described as being a goth who is tall, has a thin slightly curved frame, with hazel/green eyes and long black messy hair.

Tommy is one of the 'living impaired' kids who is described as having cold dead eyes that are a pale blue colour and shaggy grey blond hair.