In this third installment of the Vampire Chronicles, Lestat greedily prowls San Francisco in search of new blood. His kiss awakens Queen Akasha, once the Queen of the Nile, from her 6,000-year sleep. Furious about male violence, she immediately begins a wholesale slaughter of most of the world's vampires, sparing only a small group (including Lestat), who she expects will join her in a crazed crusade against male mortals.