In 19th-century Austro-Hungarian Transylvania, disgraced Austrian nobleman and former army officer Otto von Osterberg flees Vienna to restore his mother’s abandoned family castle, unlived in since 1770s when the maiden spinster who occupied it disappeared. He discovers Eszter, his vampiric great-great-great-Aunt never actually left and is very unhappy she now has to contend with a claimant on her home who magic itself recognizes as the legitimate master of the house due to his gender and title. What ensues is a gothic romance and battle of the sexes as Otto and Esther fight using the rules of how vampires can occupy homes for the right to stay in the house, while slowly growing closer to each other .