When authors Abby Yates and Erin Gilbert write a book claiming that ghosts are real, they are met with ridicule. Even though Gilbert manages to get a job teaching at Columbia University, she is teased for her book until she has to leave. Though they are mocked for believing in ghosts, their expertise comes in handy when the city of Manhattan is invaded by ghosts that can possess humans. Yates and Gilbert reunite to take on the ghosts, and they team up with a subway worker and a nuclear engineer to try to save the world from this supernatural threat.