There is the world around us, a world of people, tactile sensation, and culture. There is the wired world, inside the computer, of images, personalities, virtual experiences, and a culture all of its own. The day after a classmate commits suicide, lain, a thirteen year-old girl, discovers how closely the two worlds are linked when she receives an e-mail from the dead girl: "I just abandoned my body. I still live here..." Has the line between the real world and the wired world begun to blur? "Knights" - a super hacker group that has large effects on the wired. No one knows who the members are, but they control information and sometimes develop and distribute illegal information equipment. The KNIGHTS are trying to make Lain do something..... When Lain metaphorizes her physical self into the wired to search for an answer of incidents of kids committing suicide. She finds that the KNIGHTS are behind this incident. One day, a group of men in black suits make contact with La