10-year-old Sakura Kinomoto returns home from a typical day at school, after having a mysterious dream about a book that morning, and hears strange noises coming from her basement, where her father's library is. Upon investigating, Sakura stumbles upon the magical book of The Clow, and breaks its magical seal. Inside of the book, she finds a stack of cards, known as Clow cards. She accidentally scatters the cards after she says the word "windy", the name of the first card she picks up.

When the wind dies down, a small yellow creature named Kerberos rises from the book. He introduces himself as the guardian of the Clow cards, and Sakura, upon scattering them, has woken him up. He tells Sakura that she must now gather all of the Clow cards to prevent something terrible from happening. The story begins here, and with the help of Kero-chan (as he becomes known), and Sakura's best friend Tomoyo Daidouji (who videotapes all of Sakura's adventures and makes all of her costumes), Sakura sets out on her journey to collect all the Clow cards. Along her way she meets new friends, new enemies, and many challenges.

-Edit- I am not sure if CLAMP presented Card Captor Sakura on the way I am thinking, but I believe that they made a story that would surely make one curious. In fact, their latest project, Kobato (and others as well) also has some curious moments like Kobato not allowed to take off her hat. But on CCS, it's somehow, to the point, extreme, that is, for people whose curiosity has been transformed into malice.

I don't want to argue about that observation because it did got flak (c'mon, THAT's what I observed!), but on a general view, CCS got really good attention, not just on the common patron, but on almost all types of viewers. In general, the story is fantasy, with good whiffs of romance, fun, and moral sidelights. But at the same time, some situations are NOT morally good.