In the city of Summerdale, its monstrous trees grow so high and so thick that the sun never reaches it. The Winditty River reflects only ghostly light, creatures of an unsavory sort lurk in every shadow, and the clear bells of St. Clothilde's Cathedral never ring. As the city slowly decays like a forgotten tomb its remaining inhabitants come in three types: the vampires, who are the masters of all; the toadies, who serve them; and the blood-bound, who will, one day, join the masters.
Beneath the eerie green canopy, the undead city remains, for the most part, unchanged for many years in this gloomy calm until one of the blood-bound, who has always lived in Summerdale, saves a little bird trapped in a shaft after a thunderstorm. This one deed will shake Summerdale to its very foundation as Phacélia discovers the bright world so full of life into which the bird flies off.