The story takes place in a particularly hot summer in the 1990s, in a small quiet Japanese village called Sotoba. A series of mysterious deaths begin to spread in the village, at the same time when a strange family moves into the long-abandoned Kanemasa mansion. Doctor Toshio Ozaki, director of Sotoba’s only hospital, initially suspects an epidemic; however, as investigations continue and the deaths begin to pile up, he learns—and becomes convinced—that they are the work of the “shiki”, vampire-like creatures, plaguing the village. A young man named Natsuno Yuuki, who hates living in the village, begins to be pursued and surrounded by death.