An ex-CIA agent wants to start a new life in the Pacific Northwest, but his dreams of a quiet life go up in smoke when he stumbles onto a small town military conspiracy led by a local millionaire and right-wing zealot.

When FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned a case involving a monstrous serial killer, she seeks counsel from an imprisoned cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, whose fascination with the young woman is as great as his hunger for murder. As their relationship develops, Starling must confront her own demons, and an evil so powerful that she may not have the courage or strength to stop it.