Anita Blake is a vampire hunter ironically hired by vampires to hunt down someone who is murdering vampires in the city of St. Louis. Her investigation unwittingly begins during a bachelorette party held at Guilty Pleasures, a strip club owned by Jean-Claude, a master vampire. Anita's dislike of vampires becomes painfully obvious when a vampire named Robert 'attacks' a man named Phillip, who turns out to be a vampire junkie--someone who gets off on having a vampire suck his blood. Matters worsen when one of Anita's friends has her mind controlled by a vampire, and Anita's control over the dead helps her to resist the vampire's persuasion. Disaster is averted when Anita's pager goes off, and she is summoned by Detective Dolph Storr to lend her paranormal expertise to a murder in a local cemetery. The groundskeeper has been eviscerated, and it's Anita's determination that ghouls are to blame. However, she doesn't believe the ghouls are from that cemetery. Returning to Guilty Pleasures to take her friends home, Anita discovers that another vampire, Aubrey, has exerted mind control over her other friend, to the point that she is now totally within his power; his to do with how and when he pleases. When he attempts to do the same to Anita, she resists. However, her fear excites Aubrey so that he loses control and attacks her.