With a modest inheritance and the three gowns that comprise her entire wardrobe, Theodora Lestrange leaves Edinburgh--and a disappointed suitor--far behind. She is bound for Roumania, where tales of vampires are still whispered, to visit an old friend and write a book that will bring her true independence. She arrives at a magnificent, decaying castle in the Carpathians replete with eccentric inhabitants; the ailing dowager, the troubled steward and her own fearful friend, Cosmina. But all are outstripped in dark glamour by the castle's master, Count Andrei Dragulescu.