1888. After a disasterous Ripper investigation, Holmes sinks into a deep depression. Watson can do nothing to help his friend, but an encoded letter from the French singer, Emmeline La Victoire, rekindles the detective's interest. The singer's illegitimate son, Emil, who is 10, has disappeared, and may have been kidnapped. As Holmes and Watson travel to Paris, they discover that Emil's father, the Earl of Pellingham and a famous art collector and humanitarian, may, in fact be behind the theft of the priceless Marseilles Nike as well as the disappearance and murder of young boys working in the Earl's silk factory. Before Holmes and Watson can search for Emil, they must work through obstacles laid down by a French rival detective, Mycroft's obstruction, and series of apparently related murders--all events that hinder the detectives' search for the truth.