Rockford Peadlebody dies in a train wreck while traveling with his family, (a rather dysfunctional lot of half-blood vampires) after a flood in Mississippi washes their home away. Once his brother Gerald, his wife Ginger, and son Raymond reach grandpa's estate in Ohio, they are surprised by the news that grandaddy Benjamin Peadlebody has also died. They are now heirs to the infamous Peadlebody manor and all its peculiarities, including the butler, a reserved, tattooed, muscle-man named Richard Cottlebone,

It seems fishy to Gerald that two untimely deaths in the family happened within a week. Yes, Rockford's demise was of his own doing, but Benjamin's? Perhaps the butler, knows more than he's letting on?

To prove himself worthy, since he failed to live up to old Benjamin's standards when he was alive, Gerald goes about to unravel the thread of Papa's death. No help comes from Ginger. She's too busy trying to un-vampire herself. And Raymond is in love, but not with his relatives. Gerald soon discovers solving a murder mystery meets with a stone cold reception.