The narrator, Bella Swan, dreams she’s talking to her grandmother when Edward walks up to them, smiling, his skin glittering in the sun. She turns back to her grandmother and realizes she’s looking in a mirror at herself, old and wrinkled. Edward kisses her withered cheek and says, “Happy birthday.”

Bella wakes abruptly. The sky outside her room is overcast, typical of her town, Forks, in northwest Washington State. Today, Bella turns 18. She’s officially older than her beloved boyfriend, Edward, who’s a vampire and eternally 17. With him, Bella’s just had the best summer of her life. She doesn’t want to get older and older while he stays the same.

Her father, Police Chief Charlie Swan, presents her with birthday gifts, including a film camera, but her mind is elsewhere. She drives her old Chevy truck to Forks High School, where she meets Edward and his “sister” Alice—they’re unrelated but pretend at school to be two of five adoptees of the town surgeon, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, and his wife, Esme. All are vampires and must hide this fact; they live near Forks because it’s nearly always cloudy there, which hides their telltale glittery skin.

Alice, happy and eager, has a gift ready, but Bella doesn’t want a big production about it at school.