Hailed as the savior of the Japanese Police Department, high school detective Shinichi Kudou uses a combination of observational skills, critical thinking, and all-around knowledge to solve cases that leave the police stumped.

One day, while at an outing with childhood friend Ran Mouri, Shinichi bears witness to a suspicious transaction between two men and is caught. As a result, he is forced to ingest a poison that is supposed to kill him, but unexpectedly shrinks his body to the size of a grade-schooler instead. Now believed to be dead, Shinichi takes up the alias of Conan Edogawa (a compound of the names of the famous mystery authors Arthur Conan Doyle and Ranpo Edogawa) in order to hide his identity and begins his new life as a seven-year-old living with Ran and her private detective father.

Meitantei Conan follows Conan as he continues to solve murder cases, all while slowly working toward exposing the men who shrunk him and eventually restoring his body.