Deptford, England, 1888 ... Richard Stokes - one half of a tag-team carnival boxing duo - has vanished, leaving his loving wife, pugilist Eby Stokes, homeless and penniless with only questions and no answers. A mutual friend asks Holmes to look into the disappearance. Watson believes the matter to be a common case of abandonment, and Holmes' interest merely an excuse to try his hand in the boxing booths of a visiting circus. However, when they are almost killed, Holmes and Watson's only remaining clue to Stokes disappearance harkens back to a boxing club disbanded in shame more than sixty...