It is 1896. Mrs. Hudson and her colleagues are traveling to Athens to attend the first Olympiad in more than 2000 years. Indeed, Holmes is to participate in the foils competition as a member of Great Britain's Olympic team. But the trip is more than just fun and games. The three members of London's first and foremost consulting detective agency are, in fact, engaged in a delicate bit of undercover work on behalf of Queen and country. They are to secure a letter being sent by courier to Queen Victoria from her daughter, the Dowager Empress of Germany. Peace between the two nations may well depend on the contents of that letter. They arrive to find both the courier and the wife of the British Ambassador shot dead in the Ambassador's residence. The letter and the Ambassador are nowhere to be found. They discover, too, that Inspector Lestrade is already in Athens investigating the sale of fake antiquities to the wife of the Ambassador. The Baker Street trio has the ten days of the Olympiad to recover the critical letter, capture a double murderer, and uncover the secret behind the scheme to pass off copies of Greek antiquities as genuine-all while Holmes seeks to dispatch his fencing competition and win an Olympic medal.