FBI Academy student Clarice M. Starling (Jodie Foster) is assigned by Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) of the Behavioral Science Unit to visit imprisoned psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) at the Baltimore State Forensic Hospital. Lecter asks to be transferred to a federal institution with better conditions, away from Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald), who often tortures him, and is willing to provide a psychological analysis of the serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine)...