An unnamed vampire has the ability to shed her skin and drinks human blood to live forever. She sleeps with the local slaves to quell her hunger and is widely feared. As time progresses, she discovers that she is aging, growing uglier and less desirable, and no amount of blood helps. Hundreds of years have passed and she becomes pregnant after she drains a couple of their blood. She gives birth to and raises a girl who, like her, drinks blood. The child resents her for her ugliness, isolation, and strangeness. The vampire realizes she has passed on her loneliness to her daughter. After teaching her daughter how to feed on humans, the protagonist realizes that blood no longer tastes good to her. While her daughter gorges herself on blood, the vampire wades out to sea and kills herself.