Set in the early 20th century in Japan, when income disparity, disease, and crime are rampant. The people await for a hero. Hirai Taro is a writer, who admires detective novels by Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc, and Edgar Allan Poe. He tries to get his own novels published, but newspapers and publishing companies show no interest towards his stories. The only person who reads his novels is Murayama Ryuko. They communicate with each other through letters. While writing his novels, Hirai Taro works low paying jobs and lives in poverty. He meets elderly Private Detective Shirai Saburo. Shirai Saburo teams up with Hirai Taro and they do private detective jobs together. Later, Hirai Taro becomes the famous detective novel writer with the pen name of Edogawa Rampo.