In 1913, the Demeter, a ship based in Transylvania, Romania, encounters a gale off the coast of Whitby, England. Meanwhile, the storm provokes mayhem among patients at Billerbeck Hall, a sanatorium in Whitby overseen by Dr. Jack Seward. Lucy, Seward’s strong-willed daughter, goes to the ward to assist her father, while her frail best friend and visitor to the hospital, Mina Van Helsing, remains in bed to rest. However, Mina sees the distressed ship approaching, and she hurries to the beach where she witnesses the vessel crash as a wolf-like animal leaps on shore. She follows the creature into a cave and finds a man lying on the ground. The next morning during the salvage operation on the beach, Jonathan Harker, a solicitor who is also Lucy’s fiancé, arrives and learns that his client, Count Dracula from Romania, is the only survivor of the shipwreck. After Mina found Dracula in the cave, he was taken to nearby Carfax Abbey, which the Count recently purchased in a sale handled by Jonathan’s firm. With bewilderment, Seward and Jonathan observe the corpses of the sailors, whose throats appear to have been torn to pieces. That evening, Seward holds a dinner party at Billerbeck Hall to welcome the new neighbor. When the elegant Count arrives, he takes a particular interest in Mina, whom he calls his “savior.” In the parlor after dinner, Mina nearly faints from a headache. Seward suggests giving her laudanum, but the Count protests, claiming the drug will “pollute her blood.” As Lucy and the others observe with skepticism, the Count hypnotizes Mina and eases her pain. Before the Count leaves, he dances with Lucy, and Jonathan watches with jealousy. In the middle of the night, Lucy leaves the bedroom that she shares with Mina and joins Jonathan in the garden for a secret rendezvous. While Lucy is away, Dracula enters the bedroom through a window and seduces Mina. The next morning, Lucy awakens to find Mina pale and struggling for breath. After Mina suddenly dies, Seward notices two puncture wounds on her neck and notifies her father, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, in Amsterdam, Holland. While Lucy is upset and feels responsible for leaving her friend alone during the night, Seward is baffled by the young girl’s death, since there was no sign of disease. After the funeral, Lucy accepts the Count’s invitation to visit the Abbey while Jonathan returns to London and Seward meets Van Helsing at the train station. During a candlelight dinner, Lucy is charmed by Dracula. He apologizes for intruding in her life, but Lucy does not mind and welcomes his kiss. Meanwhile, Van Helsing investigates his daughter’s mysterious death. When a baby is killed and the mother claims that the bloodthirsty murderer looked like Mina, the professor, who has an interest in the supernatural, becomes convinced there is a vampire in their midst. At the cemetery, Van Helsing tells Lucy that he has covered his daughter’s grave with a garlic plant to ward off “undead” creatures that drain blood from the living. Although Lucy dismisses such folklore, Van Helsing gives her a cross to wear. When they encounter Dracula at the gate, Van Helsing notices the Count’s interest in Lucy’s necklace. That night, Lucy takes off the cross before going to bed. When Dracula enters the room, she willingly allows him to seduce her and feed on her blood. The Count then offers his blood to her. Meanwhile, Van Helsing exhumes Mina’s grave and finds the casket empty. While searching an adjacent underground tunnel with Seward, Van Helsing is attacked by Mina’s undead being. As Seward subdues the creature with a cross, Van Helsing stabs his daughter with a wooden stake. Later that evening, Jonathan finds Lucy in bed with a faint pulse and fang marks on her neck. Since Jonathan is the same blood type as his lover, Seward is able to begin a transfusion immediately. Meanwhile, downstairs, the professor encounters Dracula and confirms that the Count is the vampire when Dracula’s image is not reflected in a mirror, and he recoils at the sight of Van Helsing’s crucifix. To destroy the vampire, Van Helsing and Jonathan sneak into the Abbey’s dark basement during daylight hours, expecting that Dracula will be asleep in his coffin. Van Helsing is surprised when the Count greets them and explains that he can move about in daylight hours, as long as he stays in darkness. Defiant, he reminds them that he is the “king of his kind” and that Lucy will be his greatest bride. As he transforms into a bat and strikes Jonathan, Van Helsing lets in a stream of light, causing the vampire to fly away. Back at the sanitarium, Seward locks Lucy in a cell, and Van Helsing warns Jonathan that she is not the same person, despite the transfusion. As Jonathan visits with his lover and is enticed by her charm, she tries to bite him with her new fangs, but Van Helsing rushes inside the cell and holds a cross against her, restraining her vampire tendencies. During the night, Seward, Jonathan and Van Helsing stand watch over Lucy at the sanitarium, but Dracula sneaks into her cell and takes her away. As the men search for the vampire, they realize that Dracula is attempting to escape England by boat, concealed in a crate. At the dock, Van Helsing and Jonathan commandeer a motorboat and intercept a ship bound for Romania. They pry open the crate to find Dracula and Lucy lying together inside. Jonathan restrains Lucy while Van Helsing prepares to drive a stake into the Count, but Dracula wakes up and uses the stake to impale Van Helsing against the wall. As the Count strangles Jonathan, Van Helsing summons his strength to fling a hook into the Count’s back. Jonathan then starts a crank and the Count is pulled upward by a rope and pulley to the top deck where he is burnt by the sun. Bathed in light, Lucy appears restored to her former self, but she smiles at the sight of Dracula’s cape fluttering in the wind.