There are a lot of conflicts in The Westing Game. Part of the reason for that is that the author crafted a story that contains a large cast of characters, and the author also does an admirable job of developing each character and providing each character with a unique conflict. Chris's conflict is with his disease and how people view him. Angela struggles for a sense of identity. The characters have a conflict once the bombs start going off. They want to know who is doing it, and they don't want to die in the next bomb attack.

With all of these conflicts present within the story, it might be tough for a reader to single out the main conflict; however, all of the other conflicts result from the characters being pulled together in the first place to find Westing's killer and win his fortune.

The story's main conflict is the Westing competition to win the fortune by figuring out who the murderer is, but as readers find out, that isn't exactly accurate. The characters assume that they have to find a murderer, but Turtle and readers will eventually figure out that the will actually said the fortune would go to the person who found the "fourth." It turns out that Westing wasn't killed. He was playing four different people, and Turtle Wexler is the heir to put it all together. The game's conflict and, consequently, the story's main conflict is resolved once Turtle figures out Westing's secret identities.