A bloodcurdling scream rings out from a warehouse in a bayside district. Flames flicker, reflected in a pair of eyes. A shoe clatters across the ground. The whoosh of fire mixes with the wind. Gazing into the fire is Kayoko Hasumi, an investigator from the all-female Hasumi Detective Agency, and her German Shepherd ex-police dog, Masa, who can understand human speech. The heart-wrenching event that befalls them next serves as the drama’s prologue. 7 years ago, Kayoko’s father, a career newspaperman in the society section committed suicide. But the facts of the suicide remain shrouded in mystery. Kayoko’s mother, Kyoko, has been secretly and singlehandedly investigating her husband’s death ever since… until a certain incident threatens to bring Kayoko and others into the mix, and closer to the truth.

Are romance and marriage really off limits for a television idol? Playing himself in this satirical drama, true-life idol Ryo Nishikido falls in love with a single mother of three children and then goes and marries her! When his talent agency finds out, they give him an ultimatum - he has 3 months to nullify the marriage or retire from the public eye. And if the truth should get out in the meantime, his career is immediately through! No one else knows; not his fans, not even fellow members of his idol group. So Ryo struggles with a helter skelter life of being a high-profile celebrity, a husband and a new-minted father. It’s a sure recipe for disaster, but the journey just may help deepen family and group member bonds.

A woman’s young son is kidnapped and the only clue to his disappearance is a note starting with the words “This is a quiz….” What follows is a fast-paced and stylish whodunnit which leads chief investigator Kaoru Kiriko of the Special Investigation Team down a trail of increasingly perplexing riddles that all the while seem to mock the efforts of the police. Street-smart Kaoru may be the kidnapper’s intellectual match, but as she gets closer to her mark, she finds herself becoming the hunted rather than the hunter.

The central character of this bittersweet drama is an office worker who succeeds in marrying the man of her dreams. Her struggles and triumphs, in her personal life and at work, reflect the wrenching transition demanded of young women by the bursting of Japan’s economic bubble.