An arsonist burns Covent Garden to the ground, and threatens to do the same to other buildings unless he receives a large payment. Holmes and Watson, with no clues to the man's identity, search through the rubble of the burned-out building for clues to the arsonist's identity before he can strike again.
This time it involves a blackmail scheme where fires are being set. The bad guys are trying to extort money from the British government and our boys are asked by Scotland Yard to intervene. There's nothing distinguished about this. In the Holmes stories, LeStrade is a bit of a bungler. There is an absolutely ludicrous scene where he and a police sergeant go into Holmes laboratory and, lacking any knowledge of chemistry, begin to analyze a soil sample. They are going to do it like following a "cookery book." There are so many loose ends involved here that it just doesn't work. They do trace the dirt to a carpentry shed where a bomb may have been planted.
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