As Togusa and Bato track down Nanao, Motoko and Paz are attempting to protect the Superintendent-General at a press conference about the police misuse of interceptors. When the virus does hit, Motoko and Paz have to act fast to save the intended victim. Meanwhile, the road to Nanao=A hits a dead end.

While at an international police conference in London, Aramaki drops by to visit an old flame who's now in the wine brokering business. She asks him to help her put a stop to the corruption in her company, but he tells her that it's out of his jurisdiction. Just then, however, two thieves break into the building and take them hostage.

Togusa is on the trail of the Laughing Man again, and this time, his investigations lead him towards both a leading micromachine corporation and an NGO called the Sunflower Society.

The Laughing Man returns! And, just as he did six years ago, he kidnaps the president of Serano Genomics without being detected. Section 9 arrives at Serano's house too late, and sets out to find him.

A group of terrorists identifying themselves as the "Individual Eleven" barricade themselves within the Chinese Embassy. Section 9 is called in to eliminate the terrorists without any civilian casualties, all before the scheduled police raid.

=A hacker and thief by the name of Cash Eye plans on infiltrating a vault during a party, and Section 9 is called in to prevent it. But there are a number of strange elements in this case that don't all add up.