Restless and craving a worthy puzzle, Sherlock Holmes finds one when Miss Mary Morstan calls at Baker Street with a curious tale. Years ago her father, newly returned from India, vanished without a trace. Since then she has received, every year, an anonymous gift of a single magnificent pearl, and now a mysterious letter summons her to meet a stranger who claims she has been wronged. Intrigued, Holmes and Watson take up her cause, drawn toward a hidden fortune, an old betrayal, and a debt of vengeance. Conan Doyle's 1890 novel sends the great detective into a deepening web of secrets.