The story takes place in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, when the great detective Sherlock Holmes (played by Fan Eilly) and his assistant Watson (played by Xu Zhongquan) came to China to play together and stayed at the Xianlai Inn.

The film is divided into two episodes: "The Acquaintance" (based on the 1892 short story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band") and "Bloody Inscription" (based on the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet).

Holmes and Dr. Watson help a young lady who is receiving anonymous letters 10 years after her father passed away under shady circumstances. They find themselves in an enigma involving a treasure, murder and a love interest for Watson.

A girl named Mary Morsten comes to Sherlock Holmes, who asks him and the doctor to help solve the annual receipt of one pearl by her parcel and in the search for her father, who disappeared many years ago. Holmes and Watson do not refuse her help and find out that Miss Mary is the heiress of a huge fortune — the treasures of Agra, which are also claimed by the sons of Major Sholto and Jonathan Small — an escaped convict with a wooden prosthesis instead of a leg, whom the elder Morsten and Sholto deceived (while Sholto also deceived Morsten).

Set in London, a city shrouded in mist and fog at the end of the 19th century, a musical based on the Sherlock Holmes. People's daily lives are threatened by a serial killer, Jack the Ripper, but Holmes deduced that a criminal organisation is involved. The murder was masterminded by Moriarty, a genius mathematician, at the request of a government official. Meanwhile, Holmes is reunited with opera singer Irene, an unforgettable woman who outwitted Holmes once before.

An affectionate bow to the master sleuth in this lavishly produced original that has Holmes rushing to New York City after discovering that his old nemesis, Moriarty, has kidnapped the son of the detective's long-time love, actress Irene Adler.

Sherlock Holmes comedy

In addition to the two-part television version of the film, a shorter version was installed to show the film, entitled “Sherlock Holmes in the 20th Century.” In this installation version, in particular, the entire plot of the story “Bruce-Partington Drawings” was deleted. A film version was released before the premiere of the full (two-part) television version of the film.

England, at the start of World War Two. Mysterious wireless broadcasts, apparently from Nazi Germany are heard over the BBC. They warn of acts of terror in England, just before they take place. Baffled, the Defense Committee call in Sherlock Holmes.

The film is based on three short stories by Conan Doyle: "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton", "The Final Problem", and "The Adventure of the Empty House".

The Portorican prime minister asks British detective Sherlock Holmes to find a twin for King Fernando XXIII, a weak and frightened man who fears anarchists and does not want to show himself in public. Holmes finds in the Czech newspapers a photo of the perfect double, František Lelíček, a daring bon vivant drowned in debt, so when Holmes offers him money, Lelíček decides to travel to Portorico and play the role.

Holmes, retired to Sussex, is drawn into a last case when his arch enemy Moriarty arranges with an American gang to kill one John Douglas, a country gentleman with a mysterious past. Holmes' methods baffle Watson and Lestrade, but his results astonish them. In a long flashback, the victim's wife tells the story of the sinister Vermissa Valley.

The second part of the Russian TV adaption.

During the investigation of the Agra treasure case, Holmes and Watson recall another case that Holmes had investigated earlier. The King of Bohemia comes to Holmes under a false name, who behaves somewhat arrogantly at first, and then plaintively asks for help.

Doctor Watson moves in with the eccentric Sherlock Holmes and they get a case to solve. A young heiress seeks Holmes' help when she feels threatened by her brutish stepfather after her sister dies under mysterious circumstances.

The corpse of a shabbily dressed young woman has been discovered in the mud flats of the Thames at low tide. Police assume she's a prostitute, but Dr. Watson suspects something more and goes to his old friend Holmes, now retired and at very loose ends.

When a couple of scammers hold young Alice Faulkner against her will to discover the whereabouts of letters whose dissemination could cause a scandal affecting the royal family, Sherlock Holmes decides to take over the case. (Considered lost, a copy was found in 2014, in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française.)

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson get involved with Balkan terrorists to save Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria from an assassination at the opera house and prevent World War I.

When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead in his country house, Dr James Mortimer asks Sherlock Holmes for help to save Sir Henry Baskerville, the only known heir, from the curse that haunts Baskerville family.

Sherlock Holmes is awakened in modern times with a tale that he had invented a method of suspended animation that he had utilized on himself. Awakened by an earthquake, he is helped by Amy Winslow, who lives at 1994 Baker Street in San Francisco. There he is joined by a new group of Baker Street Irregulars led by Zapper. His battles lead him to the evil Moriarty clan led by James Moriarty Booth.