A poet who needs rent money and a linguist who needs answers meet in a building that isn't haunted, which means someone is lying. The mystery unfolds through dialogue, not exposition, which means you're watching two real historical figures think their way to the truth instead of stumbling into it. This is a show that trusts you to follow the logic without spelling it out.

In 1909 Tokyo, near the end of the Meiji era, poet Takuboku Ishikawa is short on money and has a family to support. Prompted by a murder case, he sets up a private detective business in his lodgings and names it the Woodpecker Detective's Office. Linguist Kyousuke Kindaichi, an acquaintance from his hometown, serves as his assistant. A newspaper report of a ghost seen at the Asakusa Junikai, the twelve-story tower also called the Ryounkai, draws the pair into investigating it. More strange cases follow, including a figure said to devour people as it roams the streets on snowy nights. Other writers of the day, among them Kodo Nomura, Isamu Yoshii, Sakutaro Hagiwara and Bokusui Wakayama, get pulled into Takuboku's adventures as he dashes across a rapidly Westernizing Tokyo. Adapted from a mystery novel by Kei Ii, the twelve-episode series casts fictional versions of real literary figures as its sleuths.