Plot summary

In 1947, the long-retired Sherlock Holmes, aged ninety-three, lives in a remote Sussex farmhouse with his widowed housekeeper Mrs. Munro and her young son Roger. Having just returned from a trip to Hiroshima, Holmes starts to use jelly made from the prickly ash plant he acquired there to try to improve his failing memory. Unhappy about Watson's fictionalization of his last case, The Adventure of the Dove Grey Glove, he hopes to write his own account, but has trouble recalling the events. As Holmes spends time with Roger, showing him how to take care of the bees in the farmhouse's apiary, he comes to appreciate Roger's curiosity and intelligence and develops a paternal liking for him.