A shipment of crates bearing artifacts from Romania arrives at Raymond Everett's [Lenny von Dohlen] Hollywood House of Wax for a Dracula display. Inside one of the crates is Dracula's wife Vanessa [Sylvia Kristel] who is enraged to discover that she is a widow because Dracula was killed a century ago by Abraham Van Helsing. Vanessa attempts to transform Raymond into her vampire slave and to enlist his help in returning to Romania. When mutilated bodies start turning up, homicide Lieutenant Lannon Josef Sommer] (descendent of Sam Spade), aided by Helsing's grandson Victor [Stefan Schnabel] and Everett's girlfriend Jenny Harker Rachel Jones], set out to destroy the vampire. Vanessa gets Helsing, but Everett and Lannon end up staking Vanessa in the heart.
The young owner of a waxworks in Hollywood receives six instead of five ordered chests with Romanian antiques. He does not know that Vanessa, widow of Count Dracula, sleeps in the sixth chest. She rises in the night and walks around craving for blood. A thief witnessing the murder of his accomplice sets the police on the trail of the waxworks. The grandson of Dr. Van Helsing is is hunting the vampire, too.