Good Grief is the story of Greyson Goldberg, a sixteen-year-old boy from Texas. After his father opens a new restaurant in an undisclosed city in the northern United States, Greyson begins attending a new school while working in his father's restaurant.

The story of Good Grief takes place in an alternate universe in which ghost citings are the norm. There are also rumors that zombies have attacked certain cities; however, whether these beings exist, or walk among is, is not known for certain.

In addition to this, the souls of humans take on attributes according to the each person's affinity for Heaven, Hell, or Human ways. Although a few people are born with souls that have only one color--white for Heaven, red for Hell, black for Human--the general case for a person's soul is a combination of the three affinities.

Some of Greyson's classmates (and a few of his teachers) know of a conspiracy, both in Heaven and on Earth, to recreate the Universe by demolishing the Universe as it currently exists, and rebuilding it with a new Big Bang. The goal of the conspirators is to create a new Universe that does not suffer from senescence. This group is called Gnost, and is composed of priests, exorcists, and other Holy Men from across the world.

Another group runs in opposition to Gnost, working from the shadows. Several of Greyson's classmates and teachers are operatives from this group. One of this group's objectives is to gather The Signs, 108 people or groups of people who have been given Divine Powers to fight for the stability of the Universe.

Inga Park: The current Hellraiser, the person bestowed with the duty of channeling Hell's rebellious power against forces that seek to destabilize or destroy the world. She has no memories before the age of eleven. Inga's Hellraiser powers include pyrogenesis, telekinesis, and persuasion; however, a "lock" was placed over these abilities by the shadow group in order to protect her identity, thus limiting her power to 1/100th of its true level. Her specialty is destroying ghosts with fire. She protects the school and city due to the fact that her presence acts as a lure for unnatural beings. Her real name is not known...

Bonnie Tanoli: an Agent working for the shadow group. She and her sister, who has been missing since she was nine years old, form one of The Signs. Her ability allows her to establish and break boundaries, making her a master of the world around her. This ability is called Boundary Breaker. A "cap" was placed over this ability, due to Bonnie's immature control of it, and the fact that her first major use of it lead to the death of several thousand people...including her family. She chooses not to make friends, and is reluctant to enter battle. Since moving to the United States, Bonnie has lived with Rebecca Tereschencko and her mother. She does not share her real name.

Leah Tran: an Exorcist and Relic User from California. Her family use four Holy Books known as the Books of Jesus Christ, although they are not exclusively Christian texts. Leah's book is called The Nine-Chapter Bible of Jesus Christ the Healer, which she uses offensively against ghosts and zombies. Each chapter of the book can be molded into a weapon; at present date, she has set all of her weapons, though she cannot activate all of them due to the fact that she rejects the Human and Hell natures of her soul. Leah "accidentally" became a Relic User when a zombie attacked her mother, her baby brother, and the nine-year-old Leah seven years ago. In order to save them, Leah broke her father's rule concerning The Healer and read from the book, linking her soul to this Relic. Afterwards, Leah became an Exorcist and began training with her father. Every member of her nuclear family uses a Holy Book except for her mother, whose body was Cursed on the night of the attack, giving her partial Cursed powers. Despite her age, Leah is not a student at the school but a substitute teacher, taking over the Calculus class after Mr. Multo is forced to leave. She runs a Boot Camp from the class. She does not share her real name.

Greyson Goldberg: a completely normal human who just happens to be haunted by a ghost. Greyson has identified this ghost as his mother (who he has no memory of), and allows her to haunt him. In exchange, She is able to heal him whenever he is injured. He usually does not acknowledge her presence, and She rarely appears.
Five years ago, Greyson and his Texas classmates spent a few days in the countryside for a school field trip. On one of those nights, he and his friends snuck out to explore...until Greyson stepped into a bear trap.
Bleeding badly and unable to leave the trap, Greyson was forced to wait while his friends ran back for help. He was able to break away from the trap but could not stand after he had done so. Resigned, he bled out alone in the forest, knowing that he was dead already.
She appeared and restored Greyson's health for the first time; after acknowledging that She was his mother, She pointed him in the direction of the cabin and disappeared.
After running back to the cabin, he sought out the boy who had led the others to find help and attacked him.
Although Greyson appears friendly to most people, he detests intimacy and knows that every person on this Earth is essentially alone. He does not rely on other people, and instead uses underhanded measures to get things that he wants.
Despite this, Greyson has a Damsel Complex, and loves being saved by other people.
Greyson is an average student, though he performs poorly at his new school due to the fact that Inga changed his schedule to match hers on the first day of class. He hates schoolwork and prefers to spend his time scheming, making money at his father's restaurant as a waiter, or playing music.
Although Greyson knows about the existence of ghosts and the possible existence of zombies and other unnatural beings, he is hesitant to believe stories of attacks in the city and school until he sees them for himself.