Mack and Denise Rattray get their revenge on Sookie but Bill steps in to save her. Subsequently, Sookie's senses begin to undergo a transformation. She later learns that the Rattrays are dead and the police immediately suspect Bill. She also begins to wonder just how far vampires will go when a leading opponent of the Vampire Rights Act is killed in an accident. Bill agrees to visit Sookie and her grandmother and Tara and Jason invite themselves for the evening. Jason Stackhouse gets to see the video of his evening with Maudette Pickens. The police release him but his experience doesn't dissuade him from sleeping with every woman who will have him.

Bill Compton's allure is diminished somewhat when Sookie visits him in his home and finds that several other rather nasty vampires has also dropped in for a visit. Bill protects her from his one-time friends but she sees a nasty side of vampire life. Dawn Green spends the night with Sookie's brother Jason but she kicks him out after an argument. She is found strangled later that day. Tara walks out on her alcoholic mother and spends the night with her employer, bar owner Sam Merlotte.

After spending the night with Bill, Sookie is convinced that she has found the man of her dreams as the person who took her virginity. But Sookie's fellow workers and the customers at the bar don't quite agree as rumors spread of her relationship with a vampire. Sookie's painful childhood revelation about her Uncle Bartlett spurs Bill into action. Meanwhile, Tara's alcoholic mother, Lettie Mae, is convinced that she needs an exorcism and when Tara refuses to pay, she tries to get a loan from the bank. Jason is desperate to get more vampire blood and visits Fangtasia where he meets a young woman, named Amy, who introduces himself to something altogether different. Sam Merlotte is seen by Andy and a few others running across the bayou... naked. The patrons at the bar are not too pleased when a group of Bill's one-time vampire friends, Malcolm, Liam, and Diane, show up. When they mention that they've bought a house locally, three of the redneck good old boys decide to do something about it.