Plot summary

It is nighttime in Caleb's small, southwestern town when he spots the petite Mae eating an ice cream cone. He asks her for a "bite," and says, "I'm just dying for a cone." Mae smiles as she echoes two select words, "bite" and "dying," and then asks Caleb for a ride to a nearby trailer park where she is staying with "friends." On route she tells Caleb to stop and, when the two get out of the truck, she converses whimsically about the light of a star taking a billion years to reach earth. She adds, "you know why you've never met a girl like me before...because I'll still be here when the light from that star gets down here to earth." While kissing Mae's neck, Caleb professes that it "sounds like fun." When he says he would like to be there, too, Mae replies, "Maybe." Caleb then takes Mae to see a horse. However, the horse becomes riled at Mae's presence and takes off. After a bit of flirting and kissing, Mae demands he take her home, as she is due by dawn. Despite Caleb's claims that dawn is a long way off, she becomes increasingly frantic. On the ride home, he stops and tells her that he will get her home, but first, she has to kiss him. As the two kiss passionately, Mae bites Caleb's neck. With blood on her lips, she leaves the truck and runs for home just as the sun starts to rise. Caleb follows, but quickly gives up and returns to find his truck won't start. On his walk home through the fields, Caleb's skin smolders in the sun. He is weak and stumbling when his little sister spots him nearing the family farm. She tells her father, and the two watch RV with darkly tinted windows careens into the field where a figure opens the door and pulls Caleb inside, before speeding off. Inside the RV, Mae's companions threaten to kill Caleb but stop when Mae reveals she "turned" him. After a day's rest, Mae, Jesse Hooker, Diamondback, Severen, and Homer, agree to give Caleb a week to prove he is one of the group. Later, as they disband to roam the night, Caleb tells Mae that he must go home. She lets him leave, but he cannot afford a bus ticket. At the bus station, he buys a candy bar, but cannot eat it. A police officer gives him money to pay for a ticket, despite believing Caleb is under the influence of drugs. Caleb gets off the bus early, too sick to continue. When he makes his way back to Mae she feeds him her blood, which he drinks vigorously. He heals instantly and the two run off together for the night. Unsatisfied with the police's efforts to find Caleb, his family sets out to find him. Mae informs Caleb that he must learn to kill in order to survive. Despite claiming he is not a killer, the two seek out a truck driver for his first attempt. However, when Caleb cannot follow through, Mae kills for him. She allows Caleb to drink from her instead but warns that if he drinks too much he could kill her. After a week Caleb has yet to kill and the gang is ready to kill him, but Mae convinces them to give him one last night. Later the gang visits a bar and kills all the patrons except one. That one is for Caleb, but Caleb lets him escape. An infuriated Jesse knows the patron will go to the police, but as the sun is rising the gang must seek shelter in a nearby motel. The police arrive at the motel during the day demanding the gang come out. Vulnerable to sunlight, the gang chooses to shoot it out. During the gunfight, Caleb makes his way to a van that is fashioned to block out sunlight and rescues the gang. Free from the police, the gang switches vehicles and heads to a new town. They are delighted with Caleb's actions and give him more time to prove himself. After checking into another motel Caleb and Mae leave to enjoy the night, while the rest stay in to play cards. During the evening, Homer makes his way to an outside soda machine where he meets Caleb's kid sister, Sarah. As Homer looks like a young boy, he has no trouble convincing Sarah to watch television with him in his room. Soon after, Caleb returns to the gang's room and finds Sarah and their father, who Severen has brought from another motel room. Caleb tells his family that he will not return with them and asks Jesse to let them go. However, Homer refuses and announces he is going to turn Sarah. Caleb's father pulls a gun and shoots Jesse, who coughs out the bullet. During the altercation, Sarah wriggles free from Homer and opens the door. Sunlight pours in and the family escapes with Caleb wrapped in a blanket. After Caleb explains his situation, Caleb's father gives him a blood transfusion. The process cures Caleb, who eagerly takes to the sunlight with Sarah. Some night later, Caleb leaves his home to find Mae outside. When she asks why he left, he tells her he belongs at home with his family. Mae takes off and when Caleb goes back inside he finds Sarah missing. Discovering his truck tires slashed, Caleb pursues on horseback. In town, the horse bucks Caleb as Severen comes upon them. Following a brief beating from Severen, Caleb waves down an approaching truck. Severen shoots the driver, but Caleb uses the truck to run down Severen. However, Severen survives, climbs up the hood, and begins ripping the engine out with his hands. Caleb brakes, causing the trailer to crash into the cab and bails out just before the vehicle explodes, killing Severen. With Severen gone, Jesse emerges to finish off Caleb. While Caleb questions Jesse about the whereabouts of Sarah, Diamondback sneaks up unnoticed behind him. She readies a knife to throw in his back, but, when Sarah emerges and warns Caleb, he ducks and the knife strikes Jesse, instead. Caleb grabs Sarah and runs, and Mae interrupts Jesse's attempt to gun down Caleb. The gang chases down the siblings snatch Sarah and drive off, while frantically prepping the vehicle for the rising sun. In the middle of the chaos, Mae rips Sarah from Homer's grasp and jumps out of the car. Smoldering in the sunlight, Mae runs with Sarah toward the approaching Caleb. Homer follows but quickly explodes in the sunlight. Jesse and Diamondback drive toward Caleb and Sarah, who surround a blanketed Mae, intent on running down the three. However, Jesse and Diamondback burn before they can reach the trio, and the car rolls harmlessly off the road. Later, Mae wakes during daylight and finds that Caleb has given her a blood transfusion, curing her. When she tells him she is afraid, he tells her, "Don't be, it's just the sun."