It is August 1889 and the Great London Dock Strike is in progress. In the East End of London, a man is found stabbed to death near the notorious Ten Bells public house. The police call it the result of a drunken brawl; the man's brother calls it murder, and asks Sherlock Holmes to investigate the circumstances of his brother's death. Amid rising tensions between dock owners and dock workers, Holmes and Watson, ably assisted by Inspector Lestrade, find themselves plunged deep into the dark heart of London, where death and terror are ever present companions.