Sherlock Holmes

Helen Stoner needs the great man's help. She lives in a country mansion with her flamboyant and sinister guardian Grimesby Raylott, who has travelled abroad and brought home some souvenir livestock. Recently her sister Julia, about to be married and made by Raylott to sleep in a bed that was screwed to the floor, died in mysterious circumstances. Her final words referred to a "speckled band." Helen is fearful for her own safety and Holmes and Watson investigate.

Sir James Damery, acting for a very illustrious client, consults Holmes. Violet Merville is engaged to marry the Austrian Baron Gruner, who has murdered at least one wife and yet the foolish, headstrong Violet will not hear a word against him. The client is fearful for Violet's safety should the marriage go ahead. Holmes enlists the assistance of Kitty Winter, a woman whom the Baron used and threw aside, to get access to Gruner's album in which he has catalogued his conquests, to make Violet see him in his true light.

Whilst in Cornwall Holmes is approached by the local vicar to determine how Brenda Tregennis died whilst sitting in a room, playing cards with her two brothers, who were struck down with dementia as a result. The trail leads to an African adventurer and a deadly root known as the Devil's Foot.

Violet Hunter visits Sherlock Holmes for advice on whether she should accept a unique governess job with a substantial initial salary of £100 a year, on the condition that she cut her hair short, among other strange provisos. When she initially refuses, the man who made the offer, Jephro Rucastle, increases the offer to £120.

Jabez Wilson, a London pawnbroker, comes to consult Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. While studying this prospective client, both Holmes and Watson notice his red hair. Wilson tells them that some weeks before, his young assistant Vincent Spaulding urged him to respond to a newspaper advertisement by "The Red-Headed League" offering highly-paid work to only red-headed male applicants.

Douglas Wilmer reads part one of this reconstructed episode. Sherlock Holmes wakes up Dr. Watson early one winter morning to rush to a murder scene at the Abbey Grange near Chislehurst, Kent. Sir Eustace Brackenstall has been killed, apparently by burglars. Inspector Stanley Hopkins believes that it was the infamous Randall gang who have committed several other burglaries in the neighbourhood.