On a carnival evening in Nice, when Jeanne Olier is to be engaged to a certain Natahlie Rouhais, a mysterious woman in black enter the room and violently demands the young girl to renounce this marriage.
Leon de Severac is fed up with his daughter Jacqueline, who is constantly seducing men. Hoping to discourage her from her flirtatious behavior, he tells her the story of Zareda, an attractive fortune teller who is having an affair with Ivan de Maupin.
Holmes is called to a manor house to investigate the brutal murder of a country lord with a fireplace poker and reconcile the story of his bruised and battered wife with the facts.
After the death of their father, a travelling showman, Iris Belmore and her little brother Billy are engaged to play in a circus owned by George Munro.