Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go to talk to John Rance, the constable who found the dead man, Enoch J Drebber. The man tells them that he was doing his round as usual, and when he saw a light in the house, which he knew was empty, he went to check and found the dead man. When he came out to go and find his colleague, he found a drunk man leaning against the gate, and Rance helped him to go on his way. Sherlock says that Rance missed an opportunity as the drunk man was certainly the killer.
After leaving Rance, Holmes tells him that the killer came back for the woman's wedding ring that they found. So Holmes has paid for an advertisement in the newspaper about the ring. A woman turns up and tells him and Holmes that the ring belongs to her daughter, who lost her the night before. When she leaves, Holmes follows her, and when he returns to Baker Street, he tells Watson that the woman got into a cab. Holmes hid on the back, but when the cab stopped, there was nobody. Holmes thinks that the woman must have alighted when the cab was still running, and he is sure that the woman was in disguise, and it was actually a man.
That night Gregson visits. He tells them that Drebber and his secreary Stangerson stayed at a boarding house run Madame Carpentier. Apparently, Drebber tried to kiss the daughter, Alice, and Arthur was not happy and evicted him. Gregson has arrested Arthur Carpentier as suspect of the crime.
Then Lestrade appears with fresh news. The scretary Stangerson has been found dead in a hotel with the word Rache carved in the wall. Next to him a box with two pills was found, and Holmes uses one of them with his landlady's dog which is very poorly, and the dog dies.
Holmes uses some street urchins for information, and they have summoned a cab for him to leave. When the cab driver comes to pick up Holmes luggage, he tells the man he is arrested, and even though the man, Jefferson Hope, tries to escape, he, Lestrade and Gregson stop him.
The book then takes us to Salt Lake Valley. A man, John Ferrier, knows that he will die as well as the other men and women from the party travelling into Utah. He has a five-year-old girl, Lucy, with him. Then some men appear, and John realises that they are Mormons. The men tell him that they will save him and Lucy as long as he promises to join their faith and keep loyal to them. John agrees, and he says that since Lucy is all alone, she will be his daughter from then on.
Years pass, and John has a farm, and he befriends Jefferson Hope. Hope and Lucy fall in love, and he leaves, promising to return to marry her. Then the elders talk to John, saying that Lucy needs to marry one of the men from their community. John hates belonging to the Mormons as he has seen what they do if someone goes against the rules, so he tells Lucy that they need to run away.
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