A serial murderer known by a grotesquely apt nickname--Buffalo Bill-is stalking particular women. A young F.B.I. trainee is assigned to interview a mental patient--a brilliant psychiatrist and killer, for insights into the crime.

A psychopath is murdering young women across the Midwest. Believing that it takes one to know one, the FBI sends Agent Clarice Starling to interview a demented prisoner, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Lecter is willing to provide clues to the killer's actions if Clarice will feed his morbid curiosity by telling him about her own complicated life.

FBI Agent Will Graham hunts the most notorious serial killers. He is both gifted and cursed with an extraordinary ability: he can think, see, and feel like his prey. What he doesn't know is that his new partner has an extreme past. While pursuing a cannibalistic murderer, Special Agent Jack Crawford teams Graham with a psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Dr. Lecter tests Graham every step of the way, playing a game all his own, while they work to unravel...

Hannibal is on the run in Europe, accompanied by his psychiatrist, Bedelia Du Maurier, sporting a new identity, but servicing the same insatiable appetite. As the lives of Will and Jack converge toward Hannibal again, each with their own motivations to catch him once and for all, their deadly dance turns in startling and unexpected ways.