[Dark Shadows 02] • Dark Shadows 2 · the Salem Branch

In _Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch_ Barnabas Collins, the vampire hero of the

series, has recently become a human again through the efforts of his devoted

assistant Dr. Julia Hoffman and is living in current day Collinsport, Maine

trying to adjust to normal life. Although engaged to marry Dr. Hoffman, he

falls in love with a mysterious woman named Antoinette who has bought the

ruins of “the old house” on the Collins estate and is restoring it while

living with a band of hippies in the woods. Antoinette settled in the area

because her daughter is being treated in a nearby mental hospital. Her

daughter suffers from flashbacks to her previous incarnation as Miranda du Val

who was burned as a witch in the Salem witch trials. One of the judges who

condemned her to death was a Collins—Barnabas’s ancestor. Barnabas is

desperate to win Antoinette’s love and to protect her and her daughter from

the new vampire that he suspects is attacking the inhabitants of Collinsport.