With deerstalker cap perched smartly on his head, and Inverness cape hanging smoothly from his frame, master sleuth Sherlock Holmes faces the press with elegant ease.

He is about to reveal the clues which eluded Scotland Yard and now enable him to close another baffling case. There is only one small hitch. He is actually Reginald Kincaid (Michael Caine), a third rate actor with an insatiable thirst, a weakness for women and an aversion to violence. Hired by the real investigative genius Dr. Watson (Ben Kingsley) to impersonate the mythical detective Sherlock Homes, he hasn't got a clue how to solve a crime...