Set in South Georgia, forty years after the Civil War, Obadiah: A Ghost's Story is the heartwarming tale of Obadiah Sampson, a carpenter's assistant who dies while helping to build a strange house for one of the town's wealthiest families, the Stanleys. Angels bar him from entering heaven and enlist him for an undefined mission. He later assumes his task is to protect the Stanleys from their arch rivals, the Leiber family, a clan who will stop at nothing to reclaim a treasure in gold and diamonds.
Obadiah soon meets the Stanleys' eight-year-old daughter, Avie, who has the unique ability to see and talk to the kindhearted ghost, and Obadiah forges a grandfatherly bond with the young girl. After a family tragedy, Obadiah learns his true task is to protect Avie at all costs.
The Leibers devise multiple dastardly plans to secure the Stanley treasure. Obadiah's challenges prove more complicated as multiple threats emerge, threatening to thwart him at every turn.
Can Obadiah stop the increasingly dangerous Liebers from harming Avie and find the eternal peace he craves? Or will his actions break the bonds of their friendship and cause him to remain earthbound forever?