Evil always lingers in a land where men have enslaved other men. Such evil is discovered by Kody Carver, a thirteen-year-old African-American boy who spends his summers in the Old French Quarter of New Orleans. There, with the help of Raney Tanner, his alligator-wrestling, bayou cousin, he assists his magical Aunt Simone with Voodoo ceremonies for tourists in the courtyard of his aunt's haunted house. By day, Kody and Raney roam the steamy streets of the Quarter, where other kids sell Voodoo charms and vampire teeth, or dance and sweat for money. By night, Kody and Raney become Voodoo boys in loincloths and bones. When Kody is almost gunned-down by an eight-year-old wannbe thug named Newton, who was sent out to kill to prove himself worthy of membership in a kid-gang called The Skeleton Crew, Kody discovers the real gang leader has been dead for almost two-hundred years. Kody and Raney set out to save the gang members from death -- or worse -- with help from an undead boy.