Togusa of Public Security Section 9 gets a message from Detective Yamaguchi, who has spent six years on the unsolved Laughing Man Incident, the kidnapping and ransom of Serano Genomics president Ernest Serano. Yamaguchi dies in an accident before they can meet, and when the incorporeal hacker known as the Laughing Man then announces his next crime, Major Motoko Kusanagi, Batou and Chief Aramaki take up the case. This feature-length OVA condenses the Laughing Man storyline from the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, adding new animation and voice work.