The story follows Light Yagami, a genius high school student who discovers a mysterious notebook, the Death Note, which belonged to the shinigami Ryuk and kills anyone whose name is written in its pages. The series centers on Light's use of the Death Note to carry out a worldwide massacre of individuals he deems immoral to create a crime-free society, using the alias of a god-like vigilante named Kira, and the efforts of an elite Japanese police task force, led by the detective L, to apprehend him.