The Vourdalak

In 18th-century Eastern Europe, a courtier and envoy of the King of France, Marquis Jacques Antoine, knocks on a stranger's door in the middle of the night, having lost his horse and companions through being robbed. The stranger does not let him inside, but advises him to go to the house of a man named Gorcha. En route through the forest the following morning, Jacques Antoine sees Gorcha's daughter Sdenka singing, but she leaves at his approach. He then meets Gorcha's youngest son, Piotr, who reluctantly takes him to the house.