In a society where humans and vampires co-exist, set in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, Sookie Stackhouse is a young woman who may have found a perfect boyfriend. Sookie is clairvoyant and constantly hears people’s thoughts so it makes dating a bit difficult since she tries to keep her ability a secret. When 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton walks into the Merlotte’s Bar & Grill where she works as a waitress, she realizes that she can’t “hear” what he’s thinking, thus giving away his origins since she can’t hear the thoughts of those whom are technically dead. Vampires “came out of the coffin” two years before when the Japanese invented Tru Blood, a synthetic blood substitute. She rescues Bill when a couple of lowlife rednecks, the Rattrays, try to steal his blood to sell on the black market, but she may have a price to pay for interfering. Meanwhile, Sookie’s younger brother, Jason, is a smooth-talking hustler and Lothario who works part-time with a construction crew, and who gets arrested after a local woman that he had a one-night stand with is found strangled. Tara Thornton is Sookie’s best friend whom finds her bad-boy brother irresistible. Sam Merlotte is the owner of Merlotte’s Bar, who keeps his romantic feelings for Sookie to himself. Lafayette Reynolds is Tara’s flamboyant gay cousin and the short-order cook at Merlotte’s as well as Jason’s co-worker at his construction day job who has more to offer than his gourmet foods. Arlene Fowler is a middle-aged divorcee.

Strange Love – One random night while Sookie is working the night shift at her local bar, a mysterious man walks in. Immediately she knows something is different about him, because she cannot get any sort of mental reading off him. But when he orders blood, Sookie realizes that she has finally met her first vampire.