Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson return to their flat to find Brian O'Casey waiting for them. The over-excited O'Casey struggles to get his points across, but eventually he explains how he, his friend Albert, and a young woman whom he met in a bakery shop shared the price of a sweepstakes ticket, tearing the ticket into three pieces, one for each of them to hold. Their number won, and they each stand to win 8,000 pounds. But now Albert has disappeared, and unless the other two can find him by midnight, the ticket will expire, and then they won't be able to collect their winnings.