Distraught that his wife Elisabeta has committed suicide believing he had died fighting the Turks, 15th-century Romanian knight Vlad the Impaler, 'aka' Dracula, revokes his faith and becomes a vampire. In London, 1897, Jonathan Harker is sent by his London firm of estate agents to travel to Transylvania to put the final stamp on a deal with Count Dracula, who is buying an English estate. Dracula sees a picture of Harker's fiancée, Mina, and because she reminds him of Elisabeta, persuades the young man to stay for a month. Harker soon realises he is being kept prisoner by Dracula and his be-fanged female consorts. Arriving in England, Dracula transforms into a wolf and heads for the home of Lucy Westenra, where Mina is staying. After being visited several times by Dracula, Lucy becomes increasingly pale and her strange behaviour leads one of her suitors, Jack Seward, to call in a specialist, Dr Van Helsing, who manages to save Lucy with blood transfusions. Dracula takes the form of the dashing, exotic prince Vlad and begins wooing Mina, who though at first reluctant, falls for his charms. Harker, meanwhile, escapes from Dracula's castle and seeks refuge at a nunnery, where he sends a message to Mina, who decides to go to him. A maddened Dracula attacks Lucy in a fury. She dies, and Van Helsing insists that, since she is now a vampire, she must be destroyed by having a stake driven through her heart and her head cut off. Harker and Mina, now married, return and together with Van Helsing and three friends, they travel to Carfax Abbey, Dracula's resting place, to destroy him once and for all.