Meike is the daughter of the noble von Essen family. Once one of the wealthiest families in Germany, the von Essen name has since been tarnished after a string of bad business decisions led them to financial ruin. Desperate to be restored to their former wealth and glory, Meike’s parents try to marry their only daughter off to the self-made businessman Walter Gerhardt. Meike possesses no fond feelings towards Walter – she hardly knows the man – but her mother is determined to make the match work, and Meike can see no way out of her impending engagement. Meike’s future as a wife to the cold, careless Walter seems set in stone – until the carriage bearing her and her family through the forest, to Walter’s home in Augsburg, is set upon by bandits. Meike’s parents are killed, though Meike is able to escape alongside her faithful maid, Henrieke. The pair dash through the woods, searching for sanctuary – and in so doing they find an eerie, tumbledown castle hidden among the trees. This castle, as Meike soon discovers, belongs to a young woman called Magdalena. Short of stature, with flowing fair hair, Magdalena looks like a sweet, innocent thing, but there’s more to her than meets the eye. Magdalena is, in fact, a vampire – and now she has Meike in her clutches, it seems unlikely that Meike will ever be able to escape.