Batou is a cyborg, and the only remnants left of his humanity are traces of his brain and the memories of a woman called The Major. He is charged with investigating the case in which a female robot, created specifically for sexual companionship, malfunctions and slaughters her owner. As Batou delves deeper into the investigation, questions arise about humanity's need to immortalize its image in dolls...

Chiyoko Fujiwara was once a major movie star who dominated the Japanese cinema world. Thirty years ago, she abruptly disappeared from the screen and public view. Presented her with an old key, Chiyoko starts telling the story of her life, interweaving moments from her past and future and passing through the boundary between reality and the movies that had made up so much of her life.