An invincible demon is the last thing Buffy needs right now. Joyce Summers is about to undergo a serious operation, calling up all of her daughter's fears about her own mortality. Angel wants to comfort Buffy, but her mother's crisis underscores the difference between them: he will lives forever, while she will grow old...or die young.

Torn between her duties as a daughter and as the Chosen One, Buffy needs the support of her friends to help her solve the rsh of grave robberies, head off an influx of new vampires, and take Veronique down once and for all. For Veronique is on a mission--to bring down the unification of her masters, the Triumvirate, into one all-powerful demon that will drink the blood of the last man on earth...