When a schooner is wrecked off Whitby the only survivor is Count Dracula who has arrived with large amounts of Transylvanian soil to take up residence in Carfax Abbey. He makes friends with Dr Seward who runs the local asylum and with his daughter Lucy, her friend Mina, and with Jonathan Harker, Lucy's solicitor fiance. But almost immediately, Mina dies from loss of blood, and just possibly this may not be a coincidence.

A ship is wrecked near Whitby and the only survivor, Count Dracula, is found on a beach by a sickly young woman named Mina. Mina is staying with the family of her good friend Lucy Seward, whose father tries to make Dracula feel welcome. The Count takes Mina's life and then begins to court Lucy. When Mina's father, Dr. Van Helsing, is notified of his daughter's death, he comes to the Seward's home, quickly deduces that a vampire was the cause, and before long realizes who that vampire is. Convincing the others of his theory, he works with Lucy's family to stop Dracula from taking her with him to Transylvania.