When Michael, an amnesiac vampire, wakes up on the edges of Breton, a strange Virginia mining town in the midst of Civil War, he puts the townsfolk on a trajectory for disaster with an ancient coven of vampires and their mysterious handlers, "The Alliance," uncovering an international conspiracy. The government officials of Breton await the arrival of a lantern containing the heart of a powerful vampire, a telepathic device used to control the masses. As war rages outside the town, an unlikely team of misfit orphans and spies takes on the local government and the vampires who control them. When the lantern is released and Lord Ruthven, the vampire trapped within it, descends on the town only an amnesiac Michael can stop him from destroying everyone in Breton. As the battle rages into the night, Michael must question himself over whether he should join the vampires or fight them in order to save the people of the town.