STORY:
Jack Crawford of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit takes promising FBI Academy student Clarice Starling out of her training at the FBI Training Facility in Quantico, Virginia, and assigns her the task of presenting a VICAP questionnaire to the notorious Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant forensic psychiatrist who is incarcerated for cannibalistic serial murder. Starling travels to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane after learning that the assignment relates to the search for Buffalo Bill, a vicious serial killer. There, he is led by Dr. Frederick Chilton to Hannibal Lecter, a sophisticated, aristocratic man who is enclosed behind thick glass panels and stone walls that do not have windows. Lecter is initially cordial, but as Starling tries to "discuss" him, he becomes impatient and viciously rejects her. Another patient throws fresh sperm onto Starling's face as she leaves, which angers Lecter, who calls Starling back and gives her a riddle with information about a previous patient. Benjamin Raspail's severed head can be found in a rent-a-storage lot after the riddle is solved. Starling gets back to Lecter, who joins Raspail to Bison Bill and who offers to assist with profiling Bison Bill in the event that he is moved to an office nowhere near the venomous, careerist Dr. Chilton.
Hours and a long ways off, Bison Bill steals Catherine Martin, the girl of US Representative Ruth Martin. Starling is pulled from Quantico and goes with Crawford to West Virginia, where the body of Bill's most as of late found casualty dwells. Crawford asks Starling what she sees in the Buffalo Bill file while they are on their way to the town in the plane. She asserts that Bill is white, male, and that he is improving his work because he has "developed a taste for it." At the coroner's office, Starling plays out the post-mortem examination and concentrates the chrysalis of a Demise's head Hawkmoth from the casualty's throat. At the point when the casualty is turned over for additional assessment, they see that as two huge, jewel molded portions of tissue have been excoriated from her body. Starling records this information after speaking with Lecter about how Bill flays his victims.
At Quantico, Crawford grants Starling permission to offer Hannibal Lecter a fictitious deal promising a prison transfer if he provides information that aids in profiling Buffalo Bill and rescuing Catherine Martin as nationwide news of her kidnapping spreads. Instead, Lecter engages Starling in a game of "quid pro quo," offering Starling comprehensive information about Buffalo Bill in exchange for traumatic childhood events. Dr. Frederick Chilton records the conversation without telling Starling or Lecter about it. After revealing that Starling's deal is a hoax, he offers to transfer Lecter in exchange for a deal of his own, one that will make Chilton look like a hero for finding and locating Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill's real name, physical description, and previous address are revealed to Senator Martin and her entourage of FBI agents and Justice Department officials by Lecter after they board a flight to Tennessee. Martin is also openly insulted by him, and he inquires about her breastfeeding her daughter. Martin orders Lecter back to Baltimore when he spills Bison Bill's character data.
Starling travels to Lecter's special cell in a Tennessee courthouse as the manhunt begins, where she confronts him about the false information he provided to the Senator. Starling pleads with Lecter to let her finish her story about her worst childhood memory. Lecter rebuffs Starling, leaving her with her case file before escorting her out of the building by security guards after she recounts her arrival at a relative's farm, the horror of discovering their lamb slaughterhouse, and her unsuccessful attempts to rescue the lambs (they screamed as they were slaughtered, a memory that has haunted Starling her entire life). He touches one of her fingers as she reaches for the file.
Lecter gets out of his cell later that evening, his two guards getting distracted by having to move his sketches and tricking them into coming too close to him. One guard was barely alive when the local police stormed the floor, and the other guard was dismembered and strung up like an angel on the bars of Lecter's cage. Paramedics transport the survivor to an emergency vehicle and hurry off while a Specialized squad scans the structure for Lecter. The ambulance survivor peels off his own face as the team discovers a body on top of the elevator car. This reveals Lecter, who kills the paramedics and escapes to the airport.
Subsequent to being advised of Lecter's departure, Starling pores over her case document, examining Lecter's explanations prior to understanding that the primary casualty, Frederica Bimmel, knew Bill, in actuality, before he killed her. Starling goes to Bimmel's old neighborhood and finds that Bimmel was a designer and has dresses with layouts indistinguishable from the patches of skin eliminated from Bison Bill's casualties. She calls Crawford, who is already on the way to make an arrest after cross-referencing Lecter's notes with Johns Hopkins Hospital and finding a man named Jame Gumb. She realizes that Buffalo Bill is a tailor making a "woman suit" out of real skin. While Crawford leads a SWAT team to Gumb's business address in Calumet City, Illinois, he gives Starling instructions to continue conducting interviews with Bimmel's friends. The house of "Jack Gordon," whom Starling soon discovers to be Gumb, is the location of her interviews. As Gumb disappears into his basement, Starling draws her weapon. Starling follows him into the basement, which has several rooms, and finds Catherine Martin screaming in the dry well. She suddenly loses all light in the basement, which is completely dark. Starling, hearing the clicks of him drawing back the hammer on his revolver, swivels around and shoots Gumb dead as Gumb stalks Starling in the dark wearing night vision goggles.
Days after the fact at the FBI Foundation graduation celebration, Starling gets a call from Hannibal Lecter, presently in the Bahamas. Before hanging up and following Dr. Chilton through the village, Lecter excuses himself from the phone call by stating that he is "having an old friend for dinner" and reassuring Starling that he does not intend to pursue her.
