In 1994 New York City, Kathleen Conklin, an introverted graduate school student studying philosophy at the New York University, is attacked one evening on a Greenwich Village street by a woman who calls herself "Casanova." She pushes Kathleen into a stairwell and tells her to "order me to go away." When Kathleen is unable to do so, the woman bites her neck and drinks her blood. Kathleen soon develops several of the traditional symptoms of vampirism, including aversion to daylight and distaste for food. She grows aggressive in demeanor, and propositions her dissertation advisor for sex at her apartment, afterward stealing money from his wallet while he sleeps. Jean, a doctoral candidate in Kathleen's cohort (educational group), notices a rapid change in Kathleen's personality.