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English solicitor Jonathan Harker writes in his diary that he has arrived in Bistritz, Romania, and received instructions for getting to Count Dracula's castle to conclude the sale of a London residence to him. The following day, local people warn Harker that is an evil date, bless him, and give him a crucifix and talismans. On his way to the castle, Harker grows fearful as the carriage sent by Dracula seems to cover the same ground repeatedly, wolves howl and follow the carriage, and the driver stops to inspect mysterious flames. After a long time, Harker arrives at the dark castle.
Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapter 1.
Harker describes Dracula's appearance and dines with him that night. The following day, Dracula excuses himself during the morning and afternoon, but joins Harker in the evening, discusses evil spirits and the London house with him, and then leaves at daybreak. The next day, after Harker cuts himself while shaving, Dracula lunges for his throat, stops after touching the beads holding his crucifix, and throws Harker's mirror out a window. Harker realizes Dracula never eats or drinks and had no reflection on his shaving mirror, that there are no mirrors in the castle, most doors are locked, and Harker is a prisoner.
Dracula talks about his family's glories. Dracula grills Harker about English life and law, convinces him to write his fiancée, Mina, and employer about staying for one more month, and warns him to sleep only in his room. Harker hangs the crucifix above his bed, then sees Dracula crawling down a castle wall. One evening, Harker falls asleep in another room and is visited by three seductive women with sharp teeth. As one of them touches Harker's neck, Dracula appears, orders them to leave Harker alone, gives them a bag with something moving, and they fade from Harker's sight.
Dracula asks Harker to write three post-dated letters informing he is going home. Harker asks a Gypsy to send letters for him, but Dracula intercepts them. Harker sees Slovaks bringing in large boxes and Dracula slithering down a wall wearing Harker's clothes. Later, a woman approaches the castle and is devoured by wolves. Harker discovers Dracula lying in a box of earth in a tunnel. Dracula eventually allows Harker to leave, but he stays after encountering wolves outside the front door. Next morning, Harker finds Dracula in his box, looking younger and with blood on his mouth. After trying unsuccessfully to kill him, Harker plans his escape.
Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapters 2–4.
In a letter, Mina Murray, an assistant schoolmistress, tells her friend Lucy Westenra that her fiancé, Harker, has written saying he is on his way home. Lucy writes Mina that she has accepted the proposal of Arthur Holmwood, a nobleman, over those by Dr. John Seward, director of a lunatic asylum in London, and Quincey Morris, a rich American. On a phonograph diary entry, Dr. Seward admits his unhappiness at Lucy's rebuff, and describes his patient Renfield. Morris writes a congratulatory letter to Holmwood.
In her journal, Mina describes visiting with Lucy the ruined abbey in Whitby, befriending Mr. Swales, an old sailor, listening to Lucy's wedding plans, and noting she hadn't heard from Harker for a month. Later, Mina expresses concern over Harker and Lucy, who has begun to sleepwalk. She runs into Mr. Swales, who tells her he senses his death is not far off, and they see a ship drifting offshore. Dr. Seward reports that Renfield eats living creatures.
Newspaper clippings inform the ship Demeter ran aground during a storm, with no crew, its captain dead, and a cargo of large wooden boxes. A huge dog had leapt from it and disappeared. The captain's log informs that after they left Varna, Russia, crewmembers started disappearing, the first mate jumped overboard after pursuing an intruder, and the captain decided to tie himself and his crucifix to the wheel and stay with his ship to the end. Mina reports that Mr. Swales was found dead with a broken neck and a horrified look on his face and that, on the day of the captain's funeral, Lucy was restless.
Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapters 5–7.
On August 11, Lucy sleepwalks, and Mina finds her in the churchyard next to a dark figure and with two red punctures on her neck. The following days, Mina sees a bat outside Lucy's window, a dark figure with red eyes in the churchyard, and Lucy leaning outside her window near a large bird. A solicitor orders the boxes from the Demeter be delivered to Carfax, Dracula's house. Harker appears in a Hungarian hospital with brain fever, and Mina prepares to meet him. Dr. Seward finds Renfield by the Carfax chapel door, calling his master and promising obedience.
Mina finds Harker has changed, can't remember his time in Transylvania, and often raves deliriously. Harker gives Mina his diary, asking her not to tell him its content unless duty requires. They marry, and Mina seals the diary. Renfield escapes again to Carfax. When Seward finds him, Renfield calms down after seeing a big bat. In a diary, Lucy writes about nightmares and something scratching her window at night. Per Holmwood's request, Seward and Professor Van Helsing examine Lucy, but they can't identify her problem and she gets worse.
Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapters 8 & 9.
Van Helsing transfuses Holmwood's blood into Lucy, notices the punctures on her neck, and goes to Amsterdam for some books and objects. Seward watches over Lucy that night, and she wakes restored next day. The following night, however, Seward falls asleep, and Lucy is worse the next morning. Seward transfuses his own blood into her. That afternoon, Van Helsing orders Lucy to wear a necklace of garlic flowers.
Van Helsing transfuses his own blood into Lucy, and she improves. Later, Renfield cuts Seward's wrist and licks up his blood. A telegram from Van Helsing, urging Seward to stay with Lucy, is delayed. A wolf escapes the zoo and breaks the window in Lucy's room. Lucy's mother removes the garlic wreath from her neck and dies. Lucy loses consciousness. Their maids enter the room and, horrified by the sight, drink some drugged wine and pass out. Alone, Lucy hides her latest diary entry in her bodice.
Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapters 10 & 11.
The doctors find Lucy worse, but Morris agrees to transfuse blood to her. Mina writes Lucy that she married Harker and they have returned to England. Renfield escapes and attacks men carrying boxes from Carfax. Seward notices a bat hovering near Lucy's window at night. The wounds on Lucy's neck disappear, but the doctors bring Holmwood to say good-bye to her. Lucy begs him for a kiss, but Van Helsing instructs him to kiss her only on the forehead. Lucy dies and recovers her beauty.
Before Lucy's funeral, Van Helsing covers her body with garlic flowers and her mouth with a crucifix, but someone steals the latter. He asks Holmwood for Lucy's personal papers in search of clues. Mina and Harker see a man he believes to be Dracula. Harker slips into a deep sleep and remembers nothing afterward, so Mina decides to read his diary. That night, Mina hears about Lucy's death. A newspaper reports children are being abducted by a strange woman near where Lucy was buried and returned home with wounds on their necks.
Mina gives Van Helsing her diary and Harker's diary. Jonathan remembers his time in Transylvania and starts a new diary. Renfield starts eating living creatures again. Van Helsing shows the news about the abducted children to Seward and concludes the woman must be Lucy.
Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapters 12–14.
Van Helsing and Seward visit an abducted child and discover the marks on his neck are identical to Lucy's. That night, they visit Lucy's tomb, find it empty, and near dawn, find a child lying nearby. After leaving the child in safety, they go back to Lucy's tomb and find her there, looking beautiful. They meet Holmwood and Morris, and Van Helsing explains they must decapitate Lucy, fill her mouth with garlic, and drive a stake through her heart.
That night, the men go to Lucy's grave, find it empty, and Van Helsing seals the tomb door with Communion wafers. When Lucy reappears, carrying a child, the men surround her. She drops the child and lures Holmwood to her. Van Helsing leaps between them, brandishes a crucifix, removes the wafers, and Lucy slips through the tomb door. The following evening, Holmwood returns and hammers a stake through Lucy's heart.
At Van Helsing's urging, Mina and Harker come to the asylum. Mina transcribes Seward's diary. Seward reads Harker's diary and realizes Dracula is his neighbor and connected to Renfield's behavior. Harker investigates and discovers that all fifty boxes of earth were delivered to Carfax, but that some might have been moved elsewhere. Morris and Holmwood arrive at the asylum, and Mina gives them the diaries and letters to read.
Mina visits Renfield and finds him polite and rational. Van Helsing compliments Mina for her work on Seward's diary but keeps her away from what they are going to do next. Van Helsing tells the entire company about the legend of the undead. The men visit Renfield, and he pleads to be released, which Seward denies.
Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapters 15–18.
The men go to Carfax, but only find some of the boxes. Mina, increasingly anxious, reports that the previous night, she woke up after hearing strange sounds from Renfield's room, found her window open, saw a white mist creeping toward the asylum, slept fitfully, and woke up to find a cloud in her room and a white face bending over her.
Harker discovers that the missing boxes are in two other houses in London. Seward questions Renfield about the souls of the lives he plans to eat. The following evening, asylum attendants hear a scream and find Renfield lying in his cell, covered in blood.
Dying, Renfield admits that Dracula often visited him and Mina. He had tried to seize Dracula, but he attacked him and slipped into the asylum. The men rush to the Harkers' room and find Jonathan unconscious and Mina drinking from a wound on Dracula's breast. Van Helsing holds up a wafer and Dracula leaves. Morris chases him and sees a bat flying away from Reinfeld's window but not toward Carfax. Mina tells them how Dracula threatened to kill Jonathan if she made a sound, drank blood from her throat, and forced her to drink his blood.
Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapters 19–21.
Before escaping the asylum, Dracula kills Renfield. The men go to Carfax the next day and put wafers in Dracula's boxes to make them unfit for his habitation. Van Helsing seals Mina's room with wafers and touches her forehead with one, burning her skin. Mina breaks down and calls herself unclean. The men go to the houses in London to seal the other boxes and discover that one is missing.
Mina sends the men a message saying Dracula has left Carfax. The men try to ambush Dracula at one of the houses, but he escapes. Van Helsing hypnotizes Mina and finds out that Dracula is fleeing England by sea.
The men discover that Dracula is sailing back to Varna and decide to follow him there. Mina insists on accompanying them to aid with her telepathic connection to Dracula.
Before departing, Mina asks the group to destroy her if she transforms into a vampire. In Varna, the group hears that Dracula's ship has docked in Galatz instead, and they decide to go there.
Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapters 22–25.
When the group reaches Galatz, Dracula's box had been picked up. Mina investigates possible routes Dracula could take to return to his castle, and the group splits into three: Holmwood and Harker take a steamboat; Seward and Morris travel across the countryside on horseback; and Mina and Van Helsing take a train to Veresti and a carriage to the castle.
Van Helsing encircles Mina with wafers. The three female vampires tempt him, but he goes to the castle, destroys them, and seals Dracula's tomb and the castle door with wafers. On the way back, they run into a cart driven by Gypsies and loaded with a box of earth. Seward, Morris, Harker, and Holmwood intercept the cart, open the box, and destroy Dracula. Morris, fatally wounded, points out the scar has vanished from Mina's forehead and dies. Years later, Harker writes that he and Mina now have a son named Quincey, and that Seward and Holmwood are happily married.
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