Shadowed by their past, Peter Radley and his wife Helen live quietly. They were once fully-fledged, blood-sucking vampires, but that was then. Now they are Radio-4-listening abstainers and, in Bishopthorpe, have chosen a place for good and quiet people to live good and quiet lives.

When their teenage daughter Clara gets attacked on the walk home from a party, she discovers for herself the appetite her parents have kept secret. Life for the Radleys is about to become decidedly less quiet.