A famous magician hires Kogoro to keep watch on his staff members, as he believes one of them may be out to kill him. For his first act, he lies on a bed of spikes, and is slammed with another, which has Conan and Kogoro worried until he's revealed to be alive. The next trick does not go so well, and he ends up trapped in a water tank where the entrance has been sealed. By the time it's open and he's rescued, it's too late, and one of his workers is responsible.

Conan, Ran, Mouri, and Sonoko travel to Shikoku to see the kabuki play Phantom of the Konpira. It is a play based on Phantom of the Opera. Things start to mimic the play. There are requests for a heroine change, sightings of a phantom, and a deliberate attempt on the heroine, just like Phantom of the Opera. The chief of the stage setting is killed, and the chairman and the sponsor are arrested by circumstantial evidence. Conan uses Sonoko to reveal that heroine tried to ruin the theater's play.