Sherlock Holmes has learned by chance from the New York Times that the New York Police are still investigating the unsolved fire in a textile factory, in which over one hundred and fifty seamstresses lost their lives because they couldn't escape the building from the flames. When Holmes is approached about this by the husband of a woman who is still hospitalized with injuries, he agrees to inspect the accident site. Naturally, he promises his partner and personal physician Doctor Watson "solemnly" not to take on any new criminal cases during their vacation together. But when Holmes arrives at the burned factory, he must discover that the accident site is actually a crime scene, in which the New York Police might not be entirely uninvolved.