Plot

Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human-half vampire, a guardian of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discreetly within our world. Her calling is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi.

Rose Hathaway is a dhampir, half-vampire and half-human, who is training to be a guardian at St Vladimir's Academy along with many others like her. There are good and bad vampires in their world: Moroi, who co-exist peacefully among the humans and only take blood from donors, and also possess the ability to control one of the four elements - water, earth, fire or air; and Strigoi, blood-sucking, evil vampires who drink to kill. Rose and other dhampir guardians are trained to protect Moroi and kill Strigoi throughout their education. Along with her best friend, Princess Vasilisa Dragomir, a Moroi and the last of her line, with whom she has a nigh unbreakable bond, Rose must run away from St Vladimir's in order to protect Lissa from those who wish to harm the princess and use her for their own means.—jessieyf1

Rose Hathaway, 17, is reckless, passionate, outspoken, beautiful - and a dhampir (half vampire/half human) training to become a Guardian, an essential part of her world needed for the survival of her race. She, along with others, study at St. Vladimir's Academy in Montana where they coexist with Moroi (mortal vampires who can manipulate the elements - air, earth, fire, water) until they graduate to protect the Royal Families from the evil, nocturnal, immortal Strigoi vampires who kill humans and Moroi alike. The war has been a battle of survival for centuries, but will Rose be able to prove herself through discipline when she herself is falling for her 24-year-old mentor, Dimitri Belikov, after returning to school with Princess Lissa Dragomir, a Royal Moroi and Rose's best friend, after an infamous two-year furlough that endangered their lives?—AshleyMarie

Teenagers Rose Hathaway and Vasilisa "Lissa" Dragomir are best friends gone AWOL for more than a year from the St. Vladimir's Academy. Guardian Dimitri Belikov and his team from the school finally find the girls and bring them back. Rose is a Dhampir, a good half-human/half-vampire breed that can eat regular food and are trained to protect the Moroi from Strigoi (evil immortal vampires). Lissa is a princess among the Moroi, a good mortal breed of vampires that feed off blood from donors and are capable of controlling one of the four elements. With their return, Headmistress Kirova intends to punish Rose, but old Victor Dashkov, an ailing friend of Lissa's decimated family, dissuades Kirova from her intent. As Lissa dates her outcast schoolmate Christian Ozera, she is unexpectedly threatened by someone wishing her harm. Victor's daughter Natalie joins Rose and Lissa to help seek out their hidden enemy.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The story features 17-year-old Dhampir (half-human, half-vampire) guardian-in-training Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch), and her royal Moroi (the peaceful, mortal vampires) best friend Lissa Dragomir (Lucy Fry) living discreetly within our world, having escaped from their boarding school St. Vladimir's Academy one year prior to the beginning of the story, following a series of warnings and threats. They are soon dragged back to the Academy in Montana and rediscover the dangerous hierarchy within it, along with lies, rumors and secrets, both struggling to fit into the school politics. Rose starts to form an attraction to her Russian Dhampir mentor and fellow Guardian, Dimitri Belikov (Danila Kozlovsky).

The story features a 17-year-old Dhampir (half-human half-vampires who are the protectors for their royal Moroi's) guardian-in-training Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch), and her royal Moroi (the peaceful, mortal vampires, who are not hurt by daylight but need blood to survive) best friend Princess Lissa Dragomir (Lucy Fry) living discreetly within our world, and had escaped from their boarding school St. Vladimir's Academy one year prior to the story.

They are soon dragged back to the Academy and rediscovering the dangerous hierarchy within it, along with lies, rumors and secrets. Rose starts to form an attraction to her Russian Dhampir mentor, Dimitri Belikov (Danila Kozlovsky).

A group of Strigoi (evil blood sucking Vampires who only come out at night & who can only be killed by driving a silver blade through their heart) attack the caravan of Princess Lissa being taken to the academy by Dimitri. Dimitri & his team fight them off. The Strigoi have the power to turn vampires into one of them by biting them. At the academy the Dhampir are trained to fight, while the Moroi learn to control the 4 elements via magic. Kirova is the head mistress of the academy & wants to expel Rose for taking Lissa away from the academy, but Lissa insists that going away from the academy was her ideas as she felt insecure within the premises. Lissa and Rose are connected as Rose can "see" Lissa's dreams & even see what Lissa is seeing, while she is awake.

Lissa's parents were killed in a car crash 2 yrs ago & now she is directly in line to the throne. There are 12 Royal Moroi families who share the throne on a rotating basis, so rivalry is fierce. As Lissa returns to the academy, strange attacks on her increase.

Amongst the plethora of Moroi students it is difficult to figure out friend from foe. Mia is a Moroi who used to date Andre (Lissa's brother who died in the car crash) & who hates Lissa. Christian is another Moroi who is concerned for Lissa & tries to protect her. Then there is the case of the missing instructor Miss Karp, who was really fond of Lissa, but mysteriously retired before Lissa returned to the academy. Natalie is the daughter of another Moroi family scion, Victor, who is out of the reckoning for the throne.

Natalie joins LIssa & Rose & helps them to figure out who is attacking Lissa. Lissa also has the power to heal near dead organisms. Rose has a vision of Karp telling her that the more Lissa uses her powers the worse it will get & that her enemies were not the STrogoi, but inside the academy. It was Karp who hid Rose's memories & told her to run away with Lissa.

Thru classified security footage, Rose & Dimitri find that Karp was under a lot of pain & felt that she was being followed. She turned herself into a Strogoi & escaped the academy. Rose investigates further with Christian's help & finds that St Vladimir had a magic power called Spirit that would allow him to heal the near dead. But the power was painful to use & caused cuts on the arms for Vladimir. Karp & Lissa have the same power. Karp turned herself into Strogoi as she could not withstand the pain.

Lissa is kidnapped by Victor, who wants to use Lissa's power to heal himself from the chronic disease that has ruled him out of the reckoning from the throne. Lissa is tortured into healing him, but then Rose & Dimitri track her down & arrest Victor. However it turns out that Victor had turned his own daughter Natalie into a Strogoi. Natalie attacks the prison where Victor is held & kills everyone. But Dimitri & Rose team up to kill both Natalie & Victor. In the last scene Karp is shown hiding in a cave with an army of Strogoi, waiting to attack the academy.