Escaping from the stifling boredom of growing up in a small town with an overprotective father, college freshman Laura is more than ready for her first great adventure at Silas University. When her roommate Betty vanishes without a trace, and a sarcastic, nocturnal philosophy student named Carmilla moves into Betty's side of the room, Laura starts to see the dangerous side of the university's "harmless quirks." Betty isn't the first girl to go missing, just the first who hasn't come back. The girls who returned recount dreams of smothering darkness, and a strange pale figure haunting their rooms. What will Laura do if it turns out Carmilla isn't just selfish and insensitive, but completely inhuman? And what will she do if they fall in love?