It's 1815, just after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and Garrick Mortimer is a scholar extraordinaire, an underemployed and starving genius. Desperate, he agrees to sign on as tutor to Desmond Hathaway, the youngest son of a vampire family living in Yorkshire. Desmond, who's suffering terrible heartbreak caused by another boy's callous treatment of him in school, rebels against Garrick's attempts at educating him and does everything he could to chase Garrick away, which proves to be a greater challenge than he first believes. When Desmond's older brother returns from Italy for a visit, bringing with him a small group of talentless and self-absorbed poets, his (and Garrick's) world turns upside-down, mainly when he meets Leigh Blaise Sherbourne, a vampire poet who seems to detest Desmond and also harbors secrets regarding his past. Throw into the mix a desperate mother's plea for grandchildren, a family-owned torture chamber, a curious cottage-abbey-and-quarter-castle, and a grumpy family magician, and Garrick finds that life in the Hathaway household is a great deal more than he bargained for.