Rio de Janeiro, 1886. Actress
Sarah Bernhardt performs at the city's Municipal Theater, captivating the local audience enthralled by
French culture. The city is at her feet, and even the Emperor
Pedro II comes to pay his respects. He confides a secret to her: the disappearance of a precious
Stradivarius violin presented by him to the charming widow Baroness Maria Luiza. The actress suggests to the monarch to hire her friend, the legendary
British detective
Sherlock Holmes, to solve the case. Subsequently, a brutal murder shocks the city, and leaves the police superintendent Mello Pimenta: a
prostitute had been killed and mutilated, her ears cut off and a violin string strategically placed on her body by the perpetrator. Later, under the heat of the tropical sun, the lives of Holmes and
Doctor Watson are changed forever, as they find themselves neck-deep in a cultural milieu that portrays all standard Brazilian stereotypes. ==Cast==