In the United States, costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society. But, when one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up, but no less determined, masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover the plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion, a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers, Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future.