The story starts with Jonathan Harker, a real estate agent in the city of Wismar, who has to find a property for a nobleman, Lord Dracula, who plans to move to the city. Traveling to his hometown, Transylvania, Jonathan ignores the warnings of the locals and meets the count in his castle. He is troubled by the counts almost rat like appearance.
During his visit the count sees a picture of Jonathan's young wife and is enchanted immediately. He agrees to move to Wismar and buys a house right next to Jonathan and Lucy's place. During the nights Jonathan is haunted by visions, as is Lucy back in Wismar. Jonathan's employer, Mr. Renfield goes crazy and bites a cow. Jonathan finds the count asleep in a coffin and finally believes the ramblings of the locals. This night, the count departs with several coffins full of soil, locking Jonathan in the castle. He only escapes through the window with a rope fashioned out of bedsheets. However, the drop is higher than anticipated and he is severely injured. He wakes up to some music being played and is brought to the local hospital, where he raves about black coffins.
The count makes his way to Wismar by boat, killing the whole crew, blaming the plague. When he arrives in Wismar, he starts to decimate the townsfolk, again putting blame on a mysterious plague. Jonathan is returned home, but is mentally unstable and does not recognize his wife. Lucy discovers the counts dark secret and tries to convince her friends and neighbors, but only gets ridiculed. Dracula approaches her and asks for her love, which she strictly refuses. In the end, she is willing to sacrifice her own life to distract and then kill the count. She lures him into her bedroom where he drinks her blood.
Her sacrifice and beauty distract him enough to ignore the rising sun and he dies in her bedroom. The doctor Van Helsing arrives and drives a stake through the dead count's heart, just to be sure. Lucy is dead. Jonathan suddenly awakes from his mental trauma, now transformed into a vampire, and gets the doctor arrested for the murder of the count. The movie ends with Jonathan on horseback, proclaiming that there is much to be done.
