Answering a frantic letter from the future wife of a distant cousin, Elisabeth Montcalfe, Sherlock Holmes arrives at the family manor to help solve the mysterious disappearance of her father, Lord Montcalfe, a well-known Egyptologist. Scotland Yard believes him to have committed suicide by immolation, but the young lady believes differently. Unfortunately, Dr Watson is away on vacation, so Holmes is by himself in the largely abandoned manor... or is he?