Simon and Laura Armstrong's marriage is on the rocks. His drinking and abuse of prescription drugs are getting worse and blackouts and violence are occurring with greater frequency. Laura believes things are going to get better: Simon has just been appointed to an important post in the university's English department, the couple are adopting a daughter, and Simon has almost finished work on an important new book, The Cult of the Vampire. Knowing of Simon's vampire fixation, his friend Dr Charles Abbott introduces him to a patient of his, a beautiful and bewitching young woman named Stella Johnson, who is convinced she has been bitten by a vampire and can no longer see her reflection in a mirror. But Abbott cannot foresee the ultimate consequences of bringing Simon and Stella together, or the violence and tragedy that will ensue...