Mutant Humans

In the nearby future, society is under the authoritarian regime of the so-called Free Union. A minority of humans have developed telepathic abilities and are derogatively called "teeps" by the normals, who are worried about their privacy and discriminate teeps to the point where they are only allowed to live in ghettos.

This fear gets worse when the government begins admitting teeps into the police force and an "anti-immunity" bill passes, which means teeps can invade normals' brains to gather information for the state.

The normals decide to start protesting against teeps, and their marches sometimes end up in violent riots. It's during one of these marches that telepath Honor is doing her first job with the police, telling the detectives the identities and plans of the protesters, unaware that someone is watching from afar and taking pictures.

Unfortunately, Honor sometimes lingers in their minds and that causes a tickle that lets them know they're being read. As soon as the protesters realize this, they try to attack the cops guarding the area, and detective Ross can't help noticing a person in the crowd wearing a strange hood with a mask.

This person throws a molotov cocktail to start a fire before running away, and Ross has to push Honor out of the way to avoid getting her hurt. Then, Ross chases the hooded stranger through town until he manages to corner him and remove the hood, revealing a man called Rathbone, who gets arrested.

When they return to the police station, Honor is asked to stay for a special task, but it's awkward for her to wait outside the office because everyone looks at her with mistrust even if she's forbidden from reading agents.

Ross is called by Chief Okhile, who calls Honor their new guinea pig and reminds Ross that the new bill allows them to use teeps in Clearance Investigations, so Honor will be Ross' new partner.

After what happened a moment ago, Ross dislikes the idea, thinking Honor is a risk, although he does correct Okhile when she calls Honor an "it". Okhile thinks having Honor for interrogations should be seen as a gift, and Ross has no choice but to follow orders.

Afterward, Ross meets with Rathbone in the interrogation room. His file pins him as part of an anarchist cell fighting against the teeps, but he refuses to give any names or explain what the hood is for.

Ross wastes no time and calls for Honor, who immediately uses her powers to torture Rathbone with his own memories and feelings. Honor summons the anger and anguish Rathbone grew up with, his wish for his older brother to be here to show him he's finally good at something, at the naughty thoughts he used to have about his own mother.

As Honor begins quoting his mother, Rathbone has a breakdown that allows Honor to find the memory of the rebels' hideout and the names of the leaders who told Rathbone to put on the hood.

Afterward, Honor, Ross, and a team of cops raid the rebels' hideout and arrest as many people as possible. Honor discovers they're hiding something and guides Ross into finding another hood with a note that says "this hood is sent to you with the compliments of the Hood Maker, and he hopes you will find it useful".

While looking around, Honor finds a rebel wearing another one of those hoods, and before Ross shoots him down, she is shocked to discover the hood doesn't allow her to read the person wearing it.

Meanwhile in the ghetto, teep Mary is working in a bawdy house. Except it's not a traditional bawdy house, in this particular one, people pay teeps to dredge up their deepest subconscious fantasies.

Mary's client for the night is politician Franklyn, whose thoughts are so dark that leave Mary helplessly consumed by them. When he leaves, Franklyn finds a box waiting in the backseat of his car; inside there's a hood and a note saying "compliments of the Hood Maker".

Later in the evening, Mary's nightmares keep the other teeps she shares living quarters with awake because their mind is connected through the "grapevine". Honor tries to comfort her but Mary pushes her away, not wanting to be touched by a teep that sold herself to the system.

The next morning, Ross comes to pick Honor up, ruining her reputation even further and getting his car scratched for daring to show up at the ghetto. Honor explains why they don't like her, and Ross points out that ghettos usually breed dissent and if there's gonna be real trouble, then it'll start here.

Honor disagrees though, because teeps don't want trouble, they just want to lead regular lives. When they make it to the station, Ross shares the report their lab has sent after analyzing the hoods.

They're made of waxed linen material that gets immersed in ionic liquid metal, this chemical bath allows them to block the electrical signals that are read by the teeps. This means the Hood Maker has access to science division-level technology.

Ross sends all his detectives to investigate all the members of the science division while Honor connects her mind to the grapevine to gather gossip from other teeps that may've heard something about waxed linen.

She finds out the method to create such fabric and the industries that use it, concluding with eight fabric outlets in the inner city area to visit. In the meantime, a group of poor normals is foraging through an abandoned terrain and finds a box with a bunch of hoods and a note saying "share with your friends, compliments of the Hood Maker".

The hoods are passed around and put on without hesitation. Back in the station, Honor confesses to Ross that being in the city makes it hard to shut up all the population's stray thoughts, so she would like to get away someday.

She also gets the feeling that somehow, being around Ross is different. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted when Honor gets a vision through the grapevine of Mary asking for help.

Ross takes her to the bawdy house and they find Franklyn wearing a hood while holding Mary at gunpoint. Franklyn wanted to play mind-reading games, and trying to read his mind through the hood hurt Mary badly, causing her to hit Franklyn.

This is why Franklyn got more violent than usual, thinking he can get away with it because he's a politician. As he arrests him, Ross reminds Franklyn that visiting places like this will look badly on a politician, and that'll be enough to hold him in prison for a while.

Franklyn laughs it off and points out that Ross shouldn't be worrying about the hoods, he should be worrying about the teeps because they're ready to rise up. He also works with clearance, and he's seen lots of requests from the science department land on his desk.

Meanwhile, Honor picks up the hood and puts it on, surprised to find it blocks the grapevine and for the first time in her life, her mind is at peace. Sometime later, Ross uses the information he's gotten from Franklyn to review the experiments that have been going on in the science department.

The request for linen fabric came from a department created to do research into teep prevention. They were using child teeps to their max in one lab and in another, working out how to stop them.

Honor's attention falls on Dr. Cutter, who resigned from the division for health reasons thirteen years ago. She thinks it's a pity nobody got to read him, and she tells Ross again that he's different because when she's with him, everything is quiet.

Back in the ghetto, Franklyn approaches Mary, trying to apologize for what happened. Mary pretends to accept the apology and gets in his car, only for a bunch of teeps to follow her so they can all together torture Franklyn.

Moments later, the police arrive to take care of the riots that have been inspired by the ambush on Franklyn, who now has the speech capabilities of a four-year-old.

While Ross informs Honor that they're arresting everyone in the bawdy house and he can't stop them if they want to get her, Honor keeps getting messages from Mary through the grapevine, saying the rising has started and teeps need to fight back.

Honor is scared and overwhelmed as she confesses she has nowhere to hide, so Ross decides to take her to his own home. Once they reach the apartment, Ross worries about the city possibly exploding, and Honor tells him that's what normals want.

Ross gives Honor permission to read him, but Honor refuses, explaining she was already reading her mother's feelings in the womb. Her parents have always hated her for her abilities and she had to live with their hate in her head; teeps always scare people away and she doesn't want to do the same to Ross.

In return, Ross shares an anecdote about his childhood with his dad, who had always been open and honest. Then, Ross kisses Honor, and they end up spending the night together.

Later, while Ross naps, Honor takes a quick peek into Ross' mind and sees a lovely memory of him fishing with his dad. Afterward, she looks around some books and realizes something.

If all the textile factories were dead ends, then Dr. Cutter must've gotten the linen from a different supplier, and there's one more product that uses this fabric: book-binding. There's a book depository that closed thirteen years ago, which can't be a coincidence.

Ross leaves to check it out after telling Honor to stay hidden for the sake of her safety, but Honor doesn't listen and follows him while she keeps on receiving messages from other teeps that are looking for the Hood Maker to kill him.

As soon as he makes it to the abandoned book depository building, Ross finds the lab where the hoods are being made, he also finds pictures of him and Honor because it had been Cutter taking photos during the riot that day.

Cutter is also there and confesses to having an interest in Ross because the same way teeps have evolved to have telepathic abilities, nature's balance should allow other humans to develop natural immunity.

Ross is special and that's why Okhile considered him a weapon. He suddenly cuts off his explanation to put on a hood because he could tell he's being read, that's when Honor comes out, revealing she heard it all.

She wants to know what it means for Ross to be a weapon, so Cutter tells him to read Ross' mind. Shockingly, Honor finds the fishing memory playing in a loop, meaning Ross has the natural ability to block teeps.

The situation gets worse when Mary and a group of teeps arrive at the building thanks to having seen Cutter through Honor's eyes. Ross wants to help Honor and keep her safe, but she can't trust him anymore and runs away from him to lock herself up in a room.

The teeps kill Cutter and light the whole place on fire to destroy the hoods while Ross goes after Honor, finding a slot on the door that allows him to explain himself. He had an ability he didn't understand and they trained him for it, it hadn't been his choice to block her.

To prove she can trust him, Ross allows her to read him, and after lots of pushing through the fishing memory, Honor manages to see the rest of Ross' mind.

It turns out Okhile had assigned her to Ross on purpose so he could gain her trust and find out what the teeps were planning. In this version of the memory though, it's Ross calling her an it and Okhile correcting him.

Back to the present, a crying Ross admits this stopped being an assignment for him some time ago because he fell for her, and that now he wishes to run away to the mountains together.

However, Honor isn't sure if she can trust him anymore, and now she must decide if she should let him in or leave him outside in the building's fire, which matches the flames that are currently consuming the city.