[SINOPSIS] Twilight

At the start of the first book, Bella's mother had recently married Phil Dwyer, a minor league baseball player who is much younger than herself. Phil travels a lot due to his profession, and Bella notices how much her mother wants to follow him in his travels. So, to make it easier for them, Bella moves back to her birth town of Forks, Washington, to live with her father Charlie Swan. She enrolls at Forks High School in the middle of her Junior year. She does not notice the physical attraction she holds for the males at the school. She makes a few new friends, including Jessica Stanley, Angela Weber, and Mike Newton, the latter of whom she later discovers is very interested in her.

The one group of people at Forks High School that truly intrigues Bella are the Cullens, a mysterious family consisting of five adopted children. Edward Cullen, in particular, captures her attention. His adopted siblings being Alice, a petite girl with black, pixie-cut hair, who has the ability to see the future; Jasper, her husband, who has the hardest time in the family abstaining from human blood; Emmett, a broad, extremely muscular vampire, who is married to Rosalie, a beautiful, self-absorbed woman.

As the story progresses, a family friend, Jacob Black, informs Bella that the Cullens are supposedly vampires. However, they are different from other vampires in that they are "vegetarians", meaning they live off animal blood instead of human. Edward and Bella get to know each other better, and it turns out that it is hard for Edward to be near her, since he is particularly drawn by the scent of her blood. He must constantly control his desire, and he also finds that his mind reading capabilities do not work on her.

Despite his desire for her blood, Edward and Bella fall passionately in love. Edward introduces her to his family, and soon after she is invited to watch their baseball game. During the game, danger reveals itself in the form of a visiting vampire coven consisting of Laurent, Victoria, and James. Victoria's mate, James, is a sadistic tracker vampire who has set his sights on killing Bella. He tricks her into coming to her old ballet studio with the sound of her mother's voice, and the Cullen family must rush to Bella's aid.

They destroy James before he can kill her, though the other vampires of his coven, Victoria and Laurent, run and survive. Bella spends time in a hospital with Edward constantly by her side, where he admits that his sister Alice saw a vision of Bella becoming a vampire. However, he is determined to keep her human, despite her own will to become a vampire. The reasons behind his intentions are revealed in New Moon.

At the end of the novel, Edward takes Bella to their high school prom, despite her broken leg and angry protests. There are high levels of tension as he turns to action, caused by Edward and Bella's differences of opinion about turning Bella into a vampire. Bella is determined to be with Edward forever, but at the age of 17. Edward wants her to have a normal human life, in other words saying that he will love her at any condition, mortal or not.