Lakhasly

Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee, is assigned by her boss, Jack Crawford, to interview the incarcerated Hannibal Lecter, a highly intelligent former psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer.

Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee, is assigned by her boss, Jack Crawford, to interview the incarcerated Hannibal Lecter, a highly intelligent former psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. Crawford secretly hopes to gain insights into a psychopathic serial killer known as "Buffalo Bill", who kills overweight women and skins them.

Starling meets Lecter in his cell at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Although initially courteous, Lecter rebuffs her, quickly deducing Crawford's true motive. As she is leaving, another prisoner, Miggs, flings his semen at her, angering Lecter, who then changes his mind and provides Starling with a clue. This clue leads to a jar containing a man's severed head. The man is linked to Buffalo Bill, and Lecter offers to profile the killer on the condition that he is transferred away from Dr. Frederick Chilton, whom he detests. Meanwhile, Lecter influences Miggs to swallow his own tongue and commit suicide, presumably to avenge his revolting action toward Starling. Around the same time, another victim is found with a death's head moth lodged in her throat.

In Tennessee, Buffalo Bill abducts Catherine Martin, the daughter of a U.S. senator. Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Lecter a fake deal, promising a prison transfer if he helps them capture Buffalo Bill in time to rescue Catherine. Instead, Lecter demands a quid pro quo, offering clues in exchange for personal information about Starling, to which she agrees. Chilton exposes Starling's deceit and offers Lecter a new deal. Lecter agrees and is flown to Memphis, where he provides Senator Martin with accurate information on Buffalo Bill's appearance but falsely identifies him as "Louis Friend".

Starling later realizes that the name is an anagram of "iron sulfide", also known as "fool's gold". She visits Lecter, now imprisoned in Tennessee, and recounts a traumatic childhood incident in which she heard lambs screaming as they were slaughtered in a barn but was unable to save them. Lecter speculates that she hopes saving Catherine will end the recurring nightmares she has from this event. Satisfied, he returns the case files to her. That evening, Lecter brutally kills his two guards and escapes from his cell.

With the notes provided by Lecter, Starling figures out that Buffalo Bill knew his first victim: Frederika Bimmel. She travels to Bimmel's Ohio hometown and discovers that both she and Buffalo Bill were tailors. In Bimmel's room, she finds evidence revealing that Buffalo Bill is making a suit out of human skin. The culprit is a man named Jame Gumb, who believes he is transsexual but was deemed too violent to apply for a sex-change operation. Crawford and an FBI Hostage Rescue Team storm Gumb's address in Illinois but find the house empty. Meanwhile, Starling follows a lead that takes her to the house of one of Bimmel's former clients. There, she meets the real Jame Gumb, realizing he is Buffalo Bill after spotting a death's head moth. She pursues him and finds Catherine trapped in a dry well in the cavernous basement. Gumb stalks Starling with night-vision goggles but reveals himself by cocking his revolver; she reacts quickly and shoots him dead.

At the FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives a phone call from Lecter, who is in the Bahamas at a Bimini airport. He assures her that he has no intention of pursuing her and requests that she return the favor, which she says she cannot. He hangs up, stating that he is "having an old friend for dinner" as he trails a newly arrived Chilton into the crowd