In 1983, 3 years after the events of
Red Dragon,
Clarice Starling, a young
FBI trainee, is asked to carry out an errand by
Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI division that creates
psychological profiles of
serial killers. Starling is to present a questionnaire to the brilliant
forensic psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer,
Hannibal Lecter. Lecter is serving nine consecutive life sentences in a
Maryland mental institution for a series of murders. Crawford's real intention, however, is to solicit Lecter's assistance in the hunt for a serial killer dubbed "
Buffalo Bill." The killer's
M.O. involves kidnapping large women, starving them for up to two weeks, killing and skinning them, and dumping the remains in nearby rivers. The nickname originated from Kansas City Homicide as a sick joke that "he likes to skin his humps." Although initially dismissive of Starling's questions, Lecter is offended when another inmate flings semen at her. As an apology, Lecter predicts that Buffalo Bill's next victim will be
scalped and tells her to locate a car owned by Benjamin Raspail, a former patient whom Lecter eventually murdered. When Starling locates the car in a storage unit, she discovers a severed head preserved in a jar, which Lecter later identifies as Raspail's lover, Klaus. Throughout the investigation, Starling periodically returns to Lecter in search of information, and the two form a strange relationship in which he offers her cryptic clues in exchange for details about her troubled and bleak childhood as an orphan. Starling must also contend with Dr.
Frederick Chilton, the asylum's administrator and Lecter's self-styled nemesis, who makes sexual advances toward Starling and attempts to insert himself into the investigation for his own gain. When Bill's sixth victim is found in
West Virginia, Starling assists Crawford in performing the
autopsy. The victim has a
pupa stuffed in throat and, just as Lecter predicted, has been scalped. Triangular patches of skin have also been removed from her shoulders. Furthermore, autopsy reports indicate that Bill killed her within four days of her capture, much faster than his earlier victims. Starling takes the pupa to the
Smithsonian, where it is initially identified as the
black witch moth, a species that does not naturally occur where the victim was found. Later, it is identified as the
Death's-head Moth, an even more exotic species that would have to be reared in captivity from imported eggs. A similar pupa is found in Klaus' head, and based on this connection, Starling believes that Lecter knows Buffalo Bill's identity. She asks Crawford, who is caring for his terminally ill wife, Bella, why she was sent to fish for information on Buffalo Bill without being informed of her true purpose. Crawford claims that if she had had an agenda, Lecter would have sensed it and never spoken up. In Tennessee, Catherine Baker Martin, the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin, is kidnapped. Her blouse is found on the roadside, slit up the back - Buffalo Bill's calling card. He traps her in an
oubliette and begins to starve her. Crawford is advised that the President of the United States has expressed "intense interest" in the case and that a successful rescue is preferable. Crawford estimates they have three days before Catherine is killed. Starling is sent to Lecter with a deal: if he assists in Catherine's rescue and Buffalo Bill's capture, he will be transferred out of the asylum to a facility that offers a view, with privileges to visit a secluded beach and enjoy the outdoors one week a year. Although skeptical about the genuineness of the offer, Lecter does not believe that Starling would intentionally lie to him. He tells her that Buffalo Bill has come to believe he is transsexual, despite this self-diagnosis being consistently deemed false by doctors, leading to his rejection for
sexual reassignment surgery by multiple hospitals. After Starling leaves, Lecter reminisces about the past, recalling the therapy session during which he murdered Benjamin Raspail. Raspail told Lecter about a former lover, Jame Gumb: after Raspail left Gumb and began dating a sailor named Klaus, Gumb became jealous and murdered Klaus, using his skin to make an apron. Raspail also revealed that Gumb had an epiphany upon watching a butterfly hatch. Lecter's ruminations are interrupted when Chilton steps in. Having heard Starling's offer via a listening device, Chilton has discovered that Crawford's deal is a lie. He offers his own: if Lecter reveals Buffalo Bill's identity, he will indeed get a transfer to another asylum, but only if credit goes to Chilton. Lecter agrees but insists that he be allowed to give the information to Senator Martin in person, in Tennessee. Unbeknownst to Chilton, Lecter has secretly collected the ingredients for an improvised handcuff
lockpick. In Tennessee, Lecter toys with Senator Martin briefly, enjoying her anguish, but eventually provides some information about Buffalo Bill: his name is Billy Rubin, and he has suffered from "elephant ivory anthrax", a knifemaker's disease. He also provides an accurate physical description. The name, however, is a
red herring:
bilirubin is a pigment in human
bile and a chief coloring agent in human feces, which the forensic lab compares to the color of Chilton's hair. Starling makes one final attempt to get information from Lecter as he is held in police custody. He offers a final clue—"we covet what we see every day"—and demands to hear her worst memory. Starling reveals that, after her father's death, she was sent to live with a cousin on a sheep and horse ranch. One night, she discovered the rancher slaughtering the spring
lambs and fled in terror with a horse also destined for the slaughterhouse. The local sheriff caught her, and the rancher sent her to an orphanage, where she spent the rest of her childhood. Lecter, seeing the parallels between the helpless lambs and the equally helpless Catherine, thanks her for her candor, and the two share a brief moment of connection before Chilton forces her to leave. Shortly after, Lecter escapes custody by killing and eviscerating his guards, using one of their faces as a mask to fool paramedics. Crawford and Starling are blamed by the Attorney General's office for Lecter's escape, and Starling is threatened with expulsion from Quantico. The same day, Bella Crawford passes away. Despite the risk to her career, Starling continues her search for Buffalo Bill, deducing that he knew his first victim, Fredrica Bimmel, from everyday life. She visits Fredrica's family home, discovers that she was an accomplished
tailor, and realizes that the pieces of skin Buffalo Bill takes from his victims are in the shape of a tailor's pattern: he is killing the women to make a 'suit' for himself to become a woman. By canvassing Bimmel's known associates, she ends up at the house of one Jame Gumb, a dressmaker and leatherworker. She spies a Death's-head moth in his home and draws her gun on Gumb; however, he escapes into his basement. Starling, armed only with a revolver but aware that calling for backup will result in Catherine's death, follows him down and kills him after a protracted chase. Catherine is returned to her family physically unharmed. Lecter, hiding in a St. Louis hotel room and preparing to escape to South America, writes several letters: one to Barney, an orderly at the asylum, thanking and tipping him for his courteous treatment, and one to Chilton, promising retaliation and torture. He also pens a congratulatory letter to Starling, in which he hopes that "the lambs have stopped screaming" and indicates that he has no plans to pursue her. He correctly predicts that saving Catherine Martin may have granted Clarice some relief but that the silence will never become eternal, foreshadowing her motives for
a continued career at the FBI. The novel ends with Clarice sleeping peacefully "in the silence of the lambs". == Characters ==