: A retired Muscovite has lost his wife and his savings. Sherlock Holmes exposes him, finding out that the Muscovite killed his wife, who was cheating on him.

Mr. Josiah Amberley is turning to Sherlock Holmes for help. Mr. Amberley worked at a paint company for artists, made a small fortune, and retired at the age of sixty-one. He soon married a woman who was twenty years younger than him. Not far from Amberley lives a young doctor Ray Ernest, who, like the Muscovite, is a passionate chess player. Last week, the wife fled with Ernest, taking with her the lion's share of her husband's savings. Amberley asks Holmes to find the fugitives, but the great detective is currently busy, and Dr. Watson is sent to the Muscovite.

Amberley Manor is enclosed by a high wall, the garden is not well maintained, and the owner himself paints the house to distract himself. That day, he and his wife were going to the theater, but Mrs. Amberley, citing a headache, refused to go. Mr. Amberley showed his pantry, which looked like a bank vault. My wife had a second key, and she took away all the securities that were stored there. Near the estate, Watson always sees a tall, mustached brunette in smoky glasses.

Holmes is not very happy with the report.In his opinion, it was necessary to find out what the neighbors thought about Amberley and his wife, what was the relationship between the woman and the doctor. But he had already found out everything he needed. Amberley is known as a miser, and he was strict and exacting to his wife. It is likely that Dr. Ernest, playing chess with Amberley, played love with his wife.

The next day, Holmes sends Watson with Amberley to a priest living in another city who knows something about what happened. The astonished priest has no idea what, and Watson and Amberley return to the estate. There they are met by a great detective with a brunette in smoky glasses, who turns out to be a police inspector. Holmes asks Amberley where he got the bodies.

Wondering why Amberley began painting the house at such an inopportune time, Holmes decided that the smell of paint should have drowned out another smell. Sending Amberley away, he entered the house and found a gas pipe leading into the room. On the wall of the room there is an inscription: "Kill us ...".

Suspecting his wife of treason, Amberley decided to take revenge. He turned to the police and to Sherlock Holmes, so that no one would suspect anything, and out of pure bragging.