After witnessing his mother's strange murder and his father's wrongful conviction for the crime, Barry Allen becomes a brilliant but socially awkward crime scene investigator for the Central City Police Department. An advanced particle accelerator malfunctions during its public unveiling, bathing the city center with a previously unknown form of radiation. Awakening after a nine-month coma, Allen discovers he has the ability to move at superhuman speeds and vows to use his gifts to protect Central City from the escalating violence of “metahuman” criminals.