Twilight recap

Bella Swan moves to the rainy town of Forks to live with her father and becomes fascinated by Edward Cullen, a beautiful, aloof classmate who behaves strangely toward her. After he saves her from a speeding van with impossible speed and strength, she pieces together, with the help of Quileute legends, that he is a vampire. Edward confesses that he loves her and that her scent is dangerously tempting, and Bella, unafraid, falls for him despite the risk; his family lives by feeding on animals rather than people. Their happiness is shattered when a nomadic tracker vampire, James, decides to hunt Bella for sport. He lures her into a trap and bites her, but the Cullens destroy him, and Edward draws the venom from her before she can transform. Bella recovers and, still human, asks Edward to make her a vampire, which he refuses. James's mate, Victoria, escapes.

Bella Swan moves from Phoenix to the small, perpetually rainy town of Forks to live with her father, the police chief, so that her mother can travel with a new husband. Expecting to be unhappy, she settles into a new high school where she draws more attention than she wants. She is immediately struck by the Cullens, a group of strikingly beautiful, aloof adopted siblings, and above all by Edward Cullen, who sits beside her in biology and reacts to her with a hostility she cannot explain. After days of absence he returns, alternating between cold distance and unexpected courtesy. Bella is baffled and stung by his behaviour and increasingly unable to stop thinking about him, even as he seems determined to keep her at arm's length.

Edward's strangeness turns to something impossible when he stops a skidding van from crushing Bella, crossing the parking lot faster than he should and halting the vehicle with his bare hand, then refusing to explain how. Shaken, Bella begins watching him closely. On a trip to the La Push beach, a Quileute boy named Jacob Black shares tribal legends about cold ones, and Bella, piecing the hints together, comes to suspect that Edward is a vampire. She researches in secret and grows more certain. Meanwhile Edward continues to swing between warmth and warning. When Bella is cornered by a group of men one night in Port Angeles, Edward appears out of nowhere and rescues her, and the two are drawn undeniably closer.

Over a tense conversation Edward admits what he is: a vampire, one of a family that has chosen to feed only on animals rather than people. He confesses that Bella's scent is almost unbearably tempting to him, that he has fought the urge to kill her, and that he has fallen in love with her regardless. Bella, unafraid, returns his feelings, and the two acknowledge how dangerous their bond is. Edward reveals more of his nature and his family's history, showing her how sunlight makes his skin glitter and describing the strength and speed that set his kind apart. Despite the risk, they commit to each other, and Bella accepts fully what he is.

Edward brings Bella to meet his family, most of whom accept her, though Rosalie resents the danger she represents. Invited to watch the Cullens play baseball during a thunderstorm, Bella witnesses their power firsthand. The game is interrupted by three passing vampires who hunt humans. One of them, a tracker named James, catches Bella's scent and instantly fixes on hunting her for sport. The Cullens scatter to protect her, sending Bella into hiding with some of the family while others try to lead James astray. Their careful life is thrown into a desperate effort to keep Bella alive against a predator who treats the chase as a game he intends to win.

James lures Bella away by making her believe he has captured her mother, tricking her into meeting him alone at a ballet studio in Phoenix. There he attacks her, breaking her leg and biting her hand before Edward and the other Cullens arrive. They destroy James, but his venom has entered Bella's bloodstream; to stop her from turning into a vampire, Edward forces himself to suck the venom out, then stops before it is too late. Bella recovers in a hospital, her injuries explained away as a fall. Back in Forks, Edward secretly takes her to the school prom, and Bella, still human, presses him to change her into a vampire so they can be together forever, a request he refuses. Victoria, James's mate, slips away, her grief left unresolved.

James is destroyed by the Cullens at a ballet studio in Phoenix, but not before he bites Bella. Edward, in agony over the risk of killing her, sucks the vampire venom from her bloodstream so that she stays human, stopping himself before he drains her. Her injuries are explained to her father and the town as a fall down a flight of stairs. She recovers, and her relationship with Edward is stronger and openly acknowledged within his family, though Rosalie stays cool. Edward secretly takes Bella to the school prom, where she had hoped he would agree to transform her; instead he makes clear he intends to keep her human for as long as possible, unwilling to take her mortal life. Bella remains set on becoming like him one day. The wider threat is not closed: Victoria, James's mate, has escaped, and her desire for revenge over her lost partner is left hanging over the couple as the book ends.