Rose is about to begin her Guardian exams. She receives a love letter from Dimitri wishing her best of luck for her exams and that he will be coming to hunt her soon. She passes her Guardian exams, with the highest scores in her year group and officially qualifies from school. She spends some time with Adrian, he is now her new boyfriend.
Rose has decided to go on a hunt to try to save Dimitri after learning that he can be saved from being a Strigoi. It was found that a few years ago, a Moroi named Robert Doru (brother to Victor Dashkov) managed to stake and restore a Strigoi using a stake infused with Spirit magic. Rose realises that she will have to break Victor out of prison in order to gain his help in finding Robert. Lissa comes along with them and helps break Victor out of a high security prison by using compulsion on the security guards.
After escaping the prison, they converse with Victor who states that he will help them to find his brother. The group then journeys to Las Vegas where they check into a hotel. Adrian realises that Rose has used his credit and and follows the group to Las Vegas. However, upon his arrival he realises that it was them who broke Victor out of prison and he is angry at Rose for still trying to save Dimitri, her ex boyfriend, when he believes that Rose should forget about him and start making an effort for their own romantic relationship. However, they are attacked in the hotel by Dimitri and his band of Strigoi’s. The group manages to escape but due to the fact that they put Lissa in danger, they are punished by Hans, the leading Guardian at court, and are forced to carry out manual labor.
Dimitri returns and this time he successfully manages to kidnap Lissa and Christian in order to keep them hostage until Rose arrives. Rose leads a group of Guardians to save Lissa and a battle issues out between the Strigoi and Damphir. Rose is determined to kill Dimitri as she believes that he can no longer be saved. However, Christian manages to escape and he casts a ring of fire around Dimitri, thereby trapping him because Strigoi can be killed by fire.
Lissa then attacks Dimitri, revealing the hidden Spirit-infused stake tat she hid from Rose, and stakes Dimitri. A burst of light appears and Dimitri is now restored into a Damphir. He is taken into custody because people are still unsure whether he is still a Strigoi or not. He is wracked by guilt for all the lives he took as a Strigoi and so he hurts Rose by telling her he is unable to love and his love for her has faded. Rose is distraught and goes to Adrian who comforts her. The two almost have sex but Rose stops them ad they fall asleep after she lets Adrian drink her blood instead.
The next morning, she goes to breakfast where she sees DimItri surrounded by a group f Guardians. Another group of the Queen’s Guardians arrive and start to take Rose into custody. She fights them off and DImitri helps her, until she decides to willingly go with them because she does not want DImitri hurt. They accuse her of murdering Queen Tatiana, who was discovered staked by Rose’s stake in her chambers. A court hearing is held whereby Rose pleads her innocence. As she is leaving the hearing, she is passed a slip of paper – a note from Queen Tatiana, informing her that Lissa is not the last of her bloodline; there is another surviving Dragomir.
