Content Warning: This section contains references to sexual abuse, child abuse, physical violence, and anti-gay slurs.

Will Graham is a semi-retired FBI agent. His former boss and head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, Jack Crawford, visits Graham’s oceanside house. He wants to talk about “two families killed in their houses a month apart” (1). Graham listens to Crawford while staring at his wife Molly and his 11-year-old stepson Willy. Crawford believes Graham is the only one capable of catching this “psychopath” (2) before he strikes again at the next full moon, though he is concerned because Graham “got hurt last time” (3), when Graham’s investigation led to the capture of a serial killer named Hannibal Lecter. As Crawford finishes his pitch, Graham fusses over the “three remarkably ugly dogs” (4). Graham explains that “Molly’s a sucker for strays” (5). After Crawford leaves, Molly and Graham talk. She is concerned about Graham being drawn back into a violent world but accepts that he is seemingly the only person who can “reconstruct [the killer’s] thinking” (8) due to his particular form of empathy. When Crawford returns, he talks to Molly. He promises her that Graham “won’t have to fight” (10).