Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front of World War II, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He will not speak of what happened to him and his family. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him.

Hannibal's uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France. There, Hannibal lives with his uncle and his uncle's beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki, who helps him to heal - and flourish.

But Hannibal's demons are not so easily defeated. Throughout his young life, they visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn - and in the fog of traumatic memory, he discovers that he has gifts far beyond what he imagined…