The film begins in a prologue, detailing how Vlad III the Impaler defeated an "overwhelming" Turkish force invading his homeland in 1462 (see the Night Attack) only to return home to find his beloved wife Elisabeta (Ryder) dead, having committed suicide upon hearing the false reports of Vlad's death in battle. Dracula, a devout Christian, immediately flew into a rage upon being informed by priests that her soul is eternally damned as a suicide, and desecrates a chapel and renounces God, declaring he will rise from the grave to avenge her death with all the powers of darkness.
Four centuries later, Jonathan Harker, an assistant real estate agent, travels to the mountains of Transylvania to arrange the transfer of Carfax Abbey in London, Count Dracula's (Oldman) newest real estate acquisition. Harker was sent because the previous agent, Renfield (Tom Waits) had returned from Transylvania insane. Upon arriving at the castle, Harker notices its bizarre, unnatural features, a place where shadows move by themselves. He also meets Dracula, a wrinkled, pale old man in brilliant red robes.
During the final signing of the real estate papers, the Count notices a picture of Harker's fiancée Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray (Ryder), whom the Count mentions bears a striking resemblance to his dead wife, Elisabeta. Dracula imprisons Harker, where he is enticed by Dracula's insatiable, beautiful, and bloodthirsty Brides. They systematically drink his blood, leaving him weak but alive, thus preventing him from escaping the castle.
While Harker is being held prisoner, the Count books passage on the ship Demeter to England.
When the Demeter arrives in London, the entire crew is dead. Since Dracula is in a box of his native earth and assumed to be cargo, he is delivered safely to the Abbey. Renfield becomes his servant. Mina's best friend Lucy Westenra (Sadie Frost) becomes his victim when she sleepwalks the night the Demeter arrives. Dracula ravishes her and drinks her blood. Dracula – now young and handsome again – gradually meets and charms Mina, but refuses to bite her. He also takes her dancing and when she drinks absinthe seems to begin remembering her past life.
Dracula's nocturnal feedings from Lucy have caused noticeable changes in her behavior and obvious deteriorating health. The three men who are courting for her hand, Quincey Morris (Bill Campbell), Dr. John Seward (Richard E. Grant) and Arthur Holmwood (Cary Elwes), grow increasingly worried. Seward (whose asylum includes among its inmates Renfield) summons his old friend Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Hopkins). Van Helsing performs a blood transfusion with Arthur (Lucy's fiancee) then the other two men as donors. But he recognizes also that Lucy is the victim of a Vampire.
Harker escapes from Castle Dracula and makes his way to a convent from which he sends word to Mina. She leaves to join and marry him, leaving a note for her "Prince" (as Dracula had introduced himself) that she must never see him again. Grief-stricken and enraged, Dracula breaks into the Westenra house and kills Lucy.
Van Helsing brings Arthur, Seward and Quincey to the family crypt where they see Lucy return to her tomb. She has fangs and a bloody mouth and seems to have been feeding off a small child. Horrified, Arthur drives a stake through her heart,Van Helsing cuts off her head Morris burns her body.
When Harker (now with gray hair from his horror) returns with Mina, he is recruited to hunt down Dracula. He joins Van Helsing, Seward, Morris and Arthur in going to Carfax Abbey to consecrate the boxes of soil there, making it impossible for Dracula to use them. But the Count sees them. Taking the form of a green mist, he goes to Seward's asylum and kills Renfield for his betrayal, then enters the bedchamber where Mina sleeps. At first barely awake she eagerly welcomes him, but he insists upon telling her the truth – he is dead, a hunted creature, the one who murdered her friend Lucy. But despite her rage at this, Mina still loves him. She begs to become like him, to be with him. He at first tries to resist, but she insists. When the group of Vampire Hunters burst into the bedroom, they find Mina drinking Dracula's blood from his chest. Dracula faces off against them. He insists he was betrayed by God. Then, proclaiming "She is my Bride!" he retreats into the shadows.
Mina begins to change the same way Lucy had. Van Helsing hypnotizes her and learns via the connection between her and Dracula that the latter is returning to his home by ship. The five Hunters plan on trying to reach the port of Varna before him via train. But Dracula reads Mina's mind and gives them the slip. Finally, they split up. Van Helsing and Mina go directly to the Borgo Pass and the Castle, while the others try to stop the Gypsies transporting Dracula.
At night, encamped before the castle, Mina begins to change as the Brides hover nearby. Mina attempts to seduce Van Helsing and almost succeeds. She bares fangs, trying to bite him but he reacts by touching her forehead with a piece of Holy Wafer. This sears her flesh and snaps her out of it. The Brides try to attack, but cannot get too close because of Van Helsing's cross. Next morning, a weary Van Helsing enters the castle, finds the Brides and kills them.
When the chase between the Hunters and the Gypsies carrying Dracula nears the Castle, Dracula senses Mina's presence and tells her what to do. She summons a kind of blue flame from the earth around the castle (first seen when Harker arrived) which rises to the clouds and causes winds. This impedes the Hunters, but they press on. During the fight, Morris is stabbed with a dagger.
The sun sets soon after the last Gypsy is killed. Dracula bursts out of his box. One of Jonathan Harkers' fighters takes his bowie-knife and slits the Count's throat,and almost at the same moment, Morris drives his bowie knife into Dracula's heart. The vampire staggers, but Mina fends off the men with a rifle. She asks her husband "When my time comes, will you do the same to me?" He says "No," and allows her to follow Dracula into the castle.
Inside, in the very chapel where he renounced God, Dracula lies wounded. He is aged again, and his face contorted to that of a demon. But Mina tries to pull the knife from his heart, and calls him "My love," kissing him. At the moment, the candles in the chapel light on their own. The desecrations Dracula committed on the altar repair. God forgives Dracula and he becomes young and his face that of a human being. He says to her "Give me peace," and she drives the knife all the way through his heart, and then after Mina decapitates him, Dracula dies. The fresco inside the castle sanctuary changes after Mina looks up and sees the "Count" appear, as if his soul ascended to Heaven and he became saved and reunited in Heaven with his long-lost love from the beginning of the film.
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