In the year 2029, the net has grown so large that nearly everyone is connected via the information super highway. In this borderless world, artificial Intelligence and cyborgs are common aspects of everyday life. What remains of being human lies only in the "Ghost", which is the indefinable essence of human consciousness. The story revolves around Section 9's (The Internal Bureau of Investigations) efforts to track down an infamous hacker known only as the Puppet Master. The Puppet Master is able to hack into the "Ghost" of certain people and manipulate them at will. Most of Section 9's officers are equipped with state of the art cyborg implants. One member of Section 9 is Major Motoko Kusanagi, who, as the case develops, begins to have doubts about her own humanity. She hears whispers in her ghost that calls and reaches out to her. Who is it, that whispers to her? And who or what is the Puppet Master? As Major Motoko and Section 9 get closer to solving the case, they find that it's not just a simple case of just apprehending the criminals. Instead they find that the case has a much larger ramification and as they begin to dig deeper they uncover a political conspiracy behind the Puppet Master and a certain government project code named Project 2501.
