Marcus Danewell peers down from the rafters high over a rehearsal about to take place on the stage of London's Drury Lane Theatre. Yet in all the chaos on this April 1885 evening, he sees one figure only: Gabriela Rozina. In the sienna eyes of his sable-haired angel, he witnesses the fire of a dream so passionate, he knows it emanates from one place: her soul. And despite how he struggles against the sensation, Marcus's own spirit stirs in answer, writhing with a sensation he'd thought long forgotten in his 300 years of his existence. Loneliness.

Gabriela Rozina berates herself for feeling so lonely while standing at the center of Drury Lane's stage, in the midst of a hundred people. Yet when she looks into the gas stage lights, she knows she likens their glow to a vision none of her castmates share: the longing to be selected for the Prince's Grand Theatre Troupe, a company forming to take English dramatic classics abroad. Billing with the Troupe represents international recognition, and the chance to call the whole world family—a dream Gabriela has carried since the age of five, when the simultaneous death of her parents left her life empty.

Gaby’s obsessive dedication to her dream has made her the “cast neurotic”, an image intensified by her rebuffs of the dashing Alfonso Renard, a promising young producer. But stardom on Renard’s stage means also starring in his bed: a price Gaby refuses to pay. Instead, she rehearses harder for the upcoming Prince’s Troupe audition, staying later at Drury each night to do so. Her regimen is a torture for Marcus. He has barely survived seeing Gabriela during Drury's open hours. Now, with her below from midnight until dawn, he alternates between the delirium of having her near and the terror of her discovering him. Yet he also knows the conflict is his own fault. 280 years ago, his lust led him to a dark Salisbury cave as a mortal man, and left him to emerge a completely new creature . . . a vampire incapable of loving or dreaming again.