After his beloved mother passes away suddenly, Jay Turner finds himself at a crossroads. She was always secretive, and when he returns to their Boston home to clear out her possessions, he finds an unusual item: a partially burned scrap of newspaper bearing the name “Gael Brogan.” Soon after, a deliveryman leaves behind a package containing a small antique volume bound in leather—and two bloody footprints.

The sight of the volume is chilling. As a young scholar, his mother had been given the medieval book—one of a set commissioned by Vlad Țepeș, otherwise known as Dracula, just before his death in 1477. She'd always warned Jay of the dangers associated with it, and had donated it to a museum before she died . . . yet here it is, back in his possession.

Jay sets out to learn more about Gael Brogan, a prominent nineteenth-century actor whose last and most famous role was based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. As Jay begins to dig deeper—with the help of a mysterious woman named Rhiannon—he uncovers the frightening story of a young actress who fell under Brogan's sway long ago. Before long, Jay and Rhiannon realize that something similarly implacable is pursuing them.

In this epic and riveting tale, Elizabeth Kostova takes us deep into the Gilded Age of the theater and across the Atlantic in pursuit of an ancient evil and its dramatic followers.