In the year 2029 a group of cyborg ex-soldiers has taken numerous hostages in protest of what they see as detrimental changes in Japan's military structure. When the outgunned police struggle to manage the incident, Motoko Kusanagi and her newly-sanctioned and budgeted unit step in, accomplishing with only seven carefully-chosen specialists what 200 officers could not. When the incident takes an unexpected twist, a long-standing problem surfaces again: the Firestarter virus, which can rewrite victims' ghosts with fake memories in order to manipulate their actions. Things get more complicated when the Prime Minister is assassinated in a bombing during a secret meeting. In the ensuing investigation, Motoko and her team turn up not only disturbing implications of shifty business practices involving potentially hundreds of billions of dollars but also a foe of surprising nature. Former members of Section 501 are also involved, as are references to something called Third World � and that does not appear to refer to less developed countries.