Louis's story is parallel to IWV, but here it is in a very abbreviated form. Louis de Pointe du Lac was the young owner of a Louisiana plantation in the early days of America. One day, his beloved brother Paul falls to his death from the stairs of the plantation. Louis feels the loss painfully, and overcome with guilt, he throws himself heedlessly into drink and gambling. His call for death is answered by Lestat de Lioncourt, a young French vampire who had just arrived in the New World to take care of his aged father, an emigre. Lestat and his father live on Louis's plantation. As a vampire, Louis abhors killing humans, prefering to live upon rats and other small animals rather than take a human life. He comes to hate Lestat (or so he thought...) for Lestat's insensitivity to Louis's aversion and fear of the kill. Louis burns down Pointe du Lac, much to Lestat's chagrin, and is on the verge of leaving the latter, but in order to keep Louis by his side, Lestat creates Claudia. Lestat's plan works like a charm and the three of them spend 65 happy (?) years as a rather odd family. The outward peace is shattered, however, in 1862, as Claudia turns against Lestat and 'kills' him. The two flee for Europe, leaving New Orleans in flames. Their travels through the Old World yield very little information on their own kind. Finally, they arrive in Paris, to be greeted by the enigmatic Armand and the coven of the Theatre des Vampires. There is instant attraction between Louis and Armand, each hungry for the knowledge that they think the other can impart. Sensing that Louis was strongly tempted to leave her, Claudia demands that he make Madeleine into a vampire, so that she may have someone who can take care of her. Moved by his sense of guilt and her pain, Louis capitulates to her demand, even though the act of tossing another human into the existence he curses destroys what little faith he had left in his human integrity. Only a few weeks after Louis works the Dark Trick on Madeleine, the threesome are captured by the vampires of the theater. Louis is locked up in an iron coffin; Claudia and Madeleine are sent to their deaths, as they are encarcerated in a cell with an open skylight. The sun rises, leaving nothing but their ashes. Freed from his coffin, Louis is devastated upon hearing of Claudia's death and turns his fury upon the theater vampires. Right before dawn, while the vampires sleep, he sets fire to the old Theatre des Vampires, destroying them all. Only Armand is given warning, and the two of them set off on a long journey through Europe. Eventually, the two make it to the New World. Louis finds himself in New Orleans again and visits Lestat, only to find him emaciated and ruled by fear. Louis leaves Lestat, but the encounter confirms Armand's suspicion that Louis no longer feels anything. Disillusioned, he leaves Louis. Louis then continues to live quietly on his own for most of the 20th century, making San Francisco his new haunt. Believing Lestat to be dead, he unburdens his tale one evening in 1976 to a young reporter, Daniel Molloy. The tale becomes famous, but Louis maintains his low profile life. In 1984, Lestat awakens from his long sleep, to become famous as the rock star, the Vampire Lestat. Old emotions stirr in Louis, the one who had thought such things long gone, and he seeks out his old maker and lover. The two are reunited, their love for each other rekindled and past grievances (almost) buried. After the fiasco of QOD, Louis slips back into his quiet life once more. He reemerges briefly in TOBD, tormented once again by Lestats' impossible predicaments and still clinging steadfastedly to his principles.