An emissary from the Crown gets lost in a forest. He is taken in by a family who are waiting for a father they fear dead, until a figure shrouded in death appears, claiming to be the long-awaited patriarch. The myth of a vampire figure emerges and is realised within this family, where our unsuspecting Marquis d’Urfé is found. Artifice and theatricality are the threads that sew together this fascinating adaptation of the vampire’s folkloric cousin, the Balkan vourdalak.