Gifted criminal profiler Will Graham has a unique way of thinking that allows him to empathise with anyone, including psychopaths, but while helping the FBI pursue a particularly complicated serial killer, he decides he could use some help and enlists brilliant psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter. The two form a partnership and it seems that there is no villain they can't catch together, but Lecter harbours a dark secret. His own brilliant mind has gone to the dark side and he has more in common with the criminals they hunt than Will could possibly imagine.