Anne Sarah Lind is married to Jakob, a minister in a small town, and the story threads a mood of quiet dread through otherwise ordinary days. One night, a young woman named Amelia is attacked by a vampire known as the Master, and Anne warns Jakob that a man from her past, Tom Low, is visiting to work on a mill project. Anne plans to meet him, and the reunion unfolds with a charged tension: Tom wonders aloud how she ended up choosing Jakob and becoming a “church mouse” rather than living out her adventurous side. The two head to the mill, share a brief kiss, and Anne reaffirms her fidelity to Jakob, even as danger closes in.
Tom is soon beset by a swarm of rats, while Anne is viciously attacked by the Master—who sinks his bite into her neck and begins a descent into transformation. Over time, Anne adopts vampiric traits: a craving for blood dominates her, she gnaws on worms, new teeth push through, light becomes a painful foe, and she appears increasingly under the Master’s influence. A disturbing moment occurs when the Master appears outside Anne’s house and compels Anne to masturbate briefly before Jakob intervenes.
Jakob grows angry and suspects Tom of foul play. He travels to the mill to confront Tom, but instead encounters Amelia, who is now a vampire and who attacks and kills a young man. Amelia declares she does not want Jakob’s God’s love and claims she has found a new savior whose love gives her strength instead of fear. Jakob escapes and returns home to find Anne fully vampirized, having attacked someone to sate her bloodlust. Anne insists she was being controlled, yet she feels more alive than she has in years.
Determined to help, Jakob plans to find the Master and restore Anne to her non-vampiric state. The Master confronts Anne again, arguing that she seeks no ownership and merely wishes to liberate her from an oppressive and anchoring husband. Anne tells him she loves Jakob, affirming a stubborn attachment despite the upheaval.
The pair reconcile and begin to navigate how to live with Anne’s new thirst, attempting to balance her needs with their shared life. The Master returns to reiterate a vision of freeing Anne from what she calls the oppression of men and domesticity, but Jakob counters by killing the Master with a wooden stake, declaring that he “finished it.” Anne, however, counters that it wasn’t his to decide.
In the aftermath, Anne and Jakob decide to move away and sell their house. Anne asserts that she wants to make her own decisions from now on, while Jakob hopes to find a cure for the curse. The disagreement lingers as they talk, tense and unresolved, with Jakob gripping a wooden stake while Anne bares her vampire teeth, signaling that the future remains unsettled—and that Anne will steer her own destiny.
