Alarmed by a series of baffling suicides of prominent gamblers popularly dubbed “The Pajama Murders” by the newspapers, Holmes fakes his own death and assumes the identity of Rajni Singh, a retired Indian military man with a paralyzed arm. After losing a large sum in a casino and writing a bad check to cover his losses, he appears to try to take his own life. He is prevented by the mysterious and sophisticated Andrea Spedding with an offer of a loan with his life insurance policy as collateral. Shortly thereafter, there is an attempt on his life with a rare but deadly spider with the only other clue a child’s footprint. A resurfaced Holmes consults arachniolgists in an effort to solve the mystery.

A village in Canada has an old legend about a phantom that years ago killed three villagers. Many residents are afraid that the monster has come back, because some of them have seen strange luminous shapes, and then some sheep were found with their throats slashed. Their worst fears seem to be confirmed when Lady Penrose is found killed in the same way. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are in Quebec, attending a meeting of the Royal Canadian Occult Society, where they are involved in a sharp debate with Lord Penrose about his village’s legend. Not long after Lord Penrose receives word of his wife’s death, Holmes receives a letter that the dead woman had written before she died, begging for his help and protection. When Holmes goes to the village to investigate, he finds himself hunting a determined murderer who is also a master of disguise.

When a pearl with a sinister reputation for causing misfortune to its owners is stolen from a museum by a master criminal because of Sherlock Holmes’ show-boating, he is naturally obliged to find it. Soon, he learns of a series of brutal murders that seemed to have been commited by a malevolent man mountain known only as the Creeper. Now, Holmes must deal with the seemingly overwhelming menace of this man and his boss in order to retrieve the pearl.