Four months after a tragic car accident killed their parents, 17-year-old Elena Gilbert and her 15-year-old brother, Jeremy are still adjusting to their new reality. Elena finds comfort with her best friend Bonnie, frenemy Caroline, and former boyfriend Matt, but Jeremy is trying to figure out why Matt's sister, Vicki, is suddenly rejecting him and hanging out with his rival, Tyler. As the school year begins, a handsome and mysterious new student, Stefan Salvatore, fascinates Elena and her friends. Stefan and Elena are immediately drawn to one another, but Elena does not realize that Stefan is hiding a dark, deadly secret - the fact that he is a vampire. At a nighttime bonfire party, Elena and Stefan are getting to know each other when chaos erupts after Vicki is attacked and left bleeding from a savage bite to the neck. Fearing that he knows who is responsible for the attack, Stefan finds that his older brother, Damon Salvatore, has returned to town. Now these two vampire brothers - one good, one evil - are at war for Elena's soul and for the souls of her friends, family and all the residents of Mystic Falls, Virginia.
