When a burnt-out ship is discovered in San Pedro Bay along with 27 dead bodies, US customs agent Dave Kujal is assigned to work the case and thinks his best chance is to interrogate the one survivor of the massacre, Roger 'Verbal' Kint.

Sitting in an office at police headquarters, Kint, who suffers with cerebral palsy, begins to tell his story, and the more he says, the more Kujal becomes convinced that the unseen master criminal Keyser Söze is the man behind it all.