Emma May Shinnecock grew up wild on the remote Western prairies in the 1820s. Left free to roam and learn from the nature surrounding her, Emma's hunger for life drives her to flaunt formal conventions as she discovers the world around her.
After embracing her first romantic liaison with a mysterious stranger, she is left with far more than a confusing introduction to love. She is now a Beguiler, a "blood thirster" with exciting new abilities and a deeper lust for life. But her condition comes with a steep price. For the Beguiler lures its victims by forcing Emma to appear to them as the lost loves they desire most. Can Emma ever be seen as she truly is? Or is she doomed to survive only by being what others want her to be?
From her cunning role as a frontier town madam, to her flawed redemption as a preacher's wife, to her passionate yet tragic life among a fringe clan of the Lakota, Emma's quest to find love is a distinctly American twist on vampire lore you won't soon forget.