Teenaged orphan Takashi Natsume has spent most of his life passed around from relative to relative, each of whom has been anxious to get rid of him thanks to his habit of talking about things they can't see. As it happens, Takashi is able to see spirits (yokai), an ability he inherited from his grandmother, Reiko. He also inherited the innocuously named "The Book of Friends," a book Reiko used to write down the names of yokai, thereby enslaving them to her every command. Now living with distant relatives near the place where his grandmother grew up, Takashi begins to encounter the many yokai she bullied over the years.