It's New Year's Eve 1899. Simeon Lynch, Victorian assassin and condemned man is set to be hanged by the neck until dead. But someone powerful is planning his escape.

1888. After a disastrous Ripper investigation, Holmes sinks into a deep depression. Watson can do nothing to help his friend, but an encoded letter from the French singer, Emmeline La Victoire, rekindles the detective's interest. The singer's illegitimate son, Emil, who is 10, has disappeared, and may have been kidnapped. As Holmes and Watson travel to Paris, they discover that Emil's father, the Earl of Pellingham and a famous art collector and humanitarian,...