As Napoleon's army nears Moscow in 1812, four Russian spies meet with a group of twelve mercenaries from the outermost part of Christian Europe known as the Oprichniki who claim to be able to drive the French back. Russian Captain Aleksei Danilov suddenly realizes that the strangers are actually vampires and is horrified by their carnage, while his friend Dmitry sees them only as allies, and his mistress sees them as a source of perpetual youth.