An unnamed Englishman, is traveling through the European continent on route to Castle Dracula in Transylvania. Throughout his travels he keeps a journal where he records his impressions, and it is through this medium that we follow his story. It is Walpurgis Night, and as dusk falls across the German countryside, he decides to explore the surroundings in defiance of his hotelier's advice to stay inside at night. A carriage drives him to a ghost town on the environs of Munich and hurriedly drives away, and the Englishman notices a tall, skeletal stranger watching him in the distance, a stranger who frightens the coachman's horses as he tears off towards Munich.