Raised by a single mother in a rural New Hampshire town, 18-year-old Dawn Cowley sets out to find the father she has never known and discovers the devastating secret that had torn her family apart.

A vampire named Bathor turned an entire village to vampires, stuck around long enough to teach them to survive, and then promised to return in 2000 years after conquering the rest of the continent. The only problem with this plan is that the vampires, although immortal, have only a limited capacity for memory. As time passes, they forget their utopian society and led by the totalitarian zealot Grando, become paranoid, superstitious fundamentalists, splitting their society by race and gender lines, seeking to destroy those who are deemed sinful. Long-forgotten lovers Élisabeth and Fantine find that, with the help of those who were banished in the past, it is their fate to piece together the past and help preserve the little that remains before Bathor’s impending return.