After undergoing radical surgery for injuries from a motorcycle accident, a young woman (former adult film star Marilyn Chambers) develops a strange phallic growth on her body and a thirst for human blood -- the only nourishment that will now sustain her. Vampire-like, she prowls the city of Montreal, using her sexual powers to attract victims, who she then infects with a particularly virulent strain of rabies. In no time at all, the city is reduced to a raging mass of rabid, salivating monsters and only an army of machine-gun-wielding soldiers can subdue them. David Cronenberg's horror film explores the relationships between sex and violence, between bodily disintegration and the disintegration of society.