Mycroft Holmes comes up in the conversation because he has just summoned his brother to his club, in order to pass on a case brought to him by his Greek neighbor, Mr. Melas, who works as an interpreter. Two days earlier, Melas was hired by a menacing young man called Harold Latimer. He was whisked off in a blacked-out cab to a grand house outside of London, where Latimer and his associate, Wilson Kemp, forced him to relate a set of demands to their “visitor,” a gagged and emaciated Greek man, and get him to sign a legal document.

The man was stubbornly uncooperative, but Melas managed to extract information from him surreptitiously in Greek, without revealing it to the men: his name was Paul Kratides and he was being held captive and starved. The interview broke off when a young Greek woman entered the room unexpectedly; it was apparent that she knew Paul, although she seemed astonished to see him.

Melas was then deposited back in London, with a strongly worded warning that he should tell no one of his visit. However, despite his timidity, he was anxious to help his countryman, so he went to the police, and also to Mycroft, who placed a newspaper advertisement offering a reward for information about the whereabouts of two Greek nationals: Paul Kratides and a woman called Sophy.

Holmes (Jeremy Brett) worked with his larger-than-life yet shadowy sibling Mycroft (Charles Gray) to uncover the motives of a brutal duo, in an episode from the 1985 British television series.

Later that day, a man responds to the advertisement. He provides the address of a house in Kent where Sophy (and Paul) are located, and the brothers and Watson set off to investigate. En route, they go to pick up Melas, but he has been abducted by Kemp. When they arrive in Kent, the house is dark and apparently deserted. Holmes observes two sets of wheel tracks in its driveway—the outbound ones are much deeper, which confirms the villains’ recent departure, along with Sophy, in a luggage-laden carriage.

They find Melas and Kratides tied up in an upstairs room, where they are slowly being poisoned by carbon monoxide fumes from a charcoal brazier. It is too late to save Kratides, but Melas recovers. Mycroft’s correspondent then fills in the gaps: during a visit to England, wealthy Sophy Kratides had been seduced by Latimer. When Paul, her brother, arrived to halt their affair, Latimer and Kemp held him prisoner, but the language barrier thwarted their plans for him to sign over the family’s money.

The story ends ambiguously: months later, Holmes learns that two Englishmen have been found dead in Budapest; the police think the pair stabbed one another, but Holmes hopes Sophy has somehow managed to avenge Paul’s death.