The corpse of a shabbily dressed young woman has been discovered in the mud flats of the Thames at low tide. Police assume she's a prostitute, but Dr. Watson suspects something more and goes to his old friend Holmes, now retired and at very loose ends.

Teddy Rose's passion is security - selling alarm systems to prosperous yet fearful suburban homes, one of which he and his family inhabit with conspicuous success. Then one Saturday morning a violent street encounter starts a chain of events which calls into question his every assumption and changes his life for good

Terrorists release a deadly biological-warfare virus in the United States.

As they go by lorry to start their apprenticeship as Royal Naval Artificers, Pike and Brooks take a tacit dislike to one another. It's going to end in a fight.