In Crescent, Washington, young adolescent Max has been living with his friend Zoe and her mother ever since the recent passing of his own parents. That situation will be short lived as he is scheduled to move into the orphanage on November 1st, about which he is nervous in living with a bunch a strangers who may not provide him with any friendship let alone love. Along with Zoe and their mutual friends Yuri, Beans and Prescott, Max has been terrorized by a group of teenage thugs - Mona, Mike the Mouth and Dumb Dave - this bullying in addition to their "work" as thieves for a career criminal known as the Boss. Max's life has the potential to take a turn when, against his friends' advice, he enters the "spooky house" in search of Zoe's missing pet goat Princess, the house which local legend has it is occupied by a ghoul who proverbially eats children. While the owner doesn't particularly like children, Max will find the spooky house full of wonder as its owner, professionally known as The Great Zamboni, is a former magician, his house filled with his magic paraphernalia. Zamboni stopped performing magic eleven and a half years ago when in the middle of his act during a televised show, his assistant, also his wife, disappeared on stage never to be seen again. While Zamboni initially really wants nothing to do with Max, they eventually develop a friendship and may help the other with some the issues in their respective lives, dealing with some of those issues coming to a head on Halloween night driven largely by the legend of the spooky house.
—Huggo