Fevre Dream - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Abner Marsh, a remarkably unattractive but highly skilled steamboat captain, is grappling with a financial crisis in 1857 when he is contacted by Joshua York, a rich, soft-spoken gentleman. They become unlikely business partners, with Joshua winning Abner over by promising to finance the construction of a magnificent new steamboat that will be larger, faster, and more opulent than any other riverboat ever constructed: the pride of the Mississippi River.

When finally completed, she is everything Abner has ever dreamed of piloting. The large white, blue, and silver paddle steamer is christened Fevre Dream, for Abner's previously-failing company, the Fevre River Packet Company; Joshua and Abner co-captain the new vessel, with Abner being solely responsible for her actual command and navigation. Many questions are soon raised by both the crew and passengers about Joshua York and his circle of unusual friends, who hardly ever venture out of their cabins during daylight hours. Abner's own suspicions about his mysterious partner begin to grow when he finds scrapbooks in Joshua's cabin containing newspaper clippings detailing many mysterious, unexplained deaths. He confronts Joshua, who reveals that he and his friends are vampire hunters; they are using the Fevre Dream as their base of operations to investigate a trail of unusual deaths and disappearances along the mighty river. In time, however, Joshua finally reveals the whole truth: he and his friends are themselves vampires, very humanlike living beings specialized to and recurrently dependent upon hunting humans, characterized by Joshua as "... a different race." Many of Joshua's kind consider him the "Pale King" lord (or "bloodmaster") to all vampires, and all of his traveling companions have submitted to him as such. Joshua has developed a potion, using ancient alchemy and the rudiments of the chemistry of the day, which controls the blood-fever of all vampires; he is on a personal crusade to free his people of their need to feed on the warm, living blood of humanity.

The evil and amoral Damon Julian, a rival bloodmaster, formerly of New Orleans, soon learns of Joshua's efforts; he boards the Fevre Dream with his own entourage of vampire followers and manages to overpower and depose Joshua, becoming the new Pale King of all vampires aboard the riverboat. Damon forces Abner out and begins to use the Fevre Dream for his own nefarious purposes, eventually disappearing down the river, never to be seen or heard from again. Abner becomes obsessed with his lost, now demonic ship, and spends his remaining fortune searching up and down the Mississippi and its tributaries, until he is finally forced to give up the search. Marsh later serves as a naval officer during the American Civil War, all the while being haunted by the memory of his lost riverboat. Some years later, after receiving a surprising letter from Joshua, a much older Abner Marsh returns and vows to help Joshua finally depose the evil bloodmaster who has ruined both of their dreams. But this proves to be a very difficult task; the vampires eventually square-off, and with Abner's aid, Joshua finally overpowers Damon and becomes the Pale King once again. In the process, Marsh finally discovers the horrible fate that has befallen his beloved Fevre Dream.

The novel closes many decades later by suggesting that all vampires, though still effectively immortal, were eventually freed from their blood addiction by Joshua's potion and Abner's brave efforts on their behalf; they make nighttime pilgrimages to Abner's grave overlooking the Mississippi, continuing to honor his heroic contribution to their cause of freedom.