Storyline:
The King of Bohemia has chosen the wrong woman for an indiscreet liaison. Irene Adler, 'with the face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men', is not one to be discarded lightly, and the King's marriage with the second daughter of the Scandinavian monarch is unlikely to pass without prior incident. Only three days are left before the nuptials, and His Majesty does well to engage Sherlock Holmes to make one last attempt to obtain possession of a certain photograph before Irene can forward it to the bride's royal parents.
Holmes will need all his ingenuity. Five attempts have already been made by others without success, and a woman of Irene's character will clearly be no mean adversary. But Holmes has his resources, too, including the ability to impersonate a drunken-looking groom and an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist clergyman; and he has - for so avowed a misogynist - a pretty insight into female psychology.