Russia, 1963.
A woman walks home in the dark and is kidnapped by a stranger who drinks her blood. To Sasha, vampires are folk tales, told to frighten children. Ethereal beings, haunting graveyards, nothing as solid and real as Kurt.
To Kurt, Sasha is a chance to have something normally denied to him, a human with that rare addition that other vampires crave.
Together they spend the summer hiding, Sasha revelling in the freedom from her tightly controlled life and Kurt waiting in the knowledge that the others are looking for them.