A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.

Clarice Starling, a gutsy FBI trainee haunted by her past, risks her life in an attempt to save a missing woman from certain death.

The desperate, deadly search for a killer makes Clarice confront her deepest fears as she must confront and befriend convicted psychopathic serial killer Dr. Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lechter, a monstrous brilliant psychiatrist, who can lead her to the murderer.