Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) is shocked by the sudden arrival of his brother Mycroft (Rhys Ifans) in New York for both the opening a new branch of his restaurant and try and help his former fiance (Olivia d'Abo) - an engagement that ended when she and Sherlock exposed her as a fraud (which he accomplished, in part, by beginning an affair with her).
The recently divorced Marchioness needs the Holmes brothers to solve a murder and protect her "meal ticket," a horse named Silver Blaze who she believes is in danger from those who would do it harm. Loosely based on the themes of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story about the death of a trainer and horse-swapping, the story also includes a meticulous hitman (Andrew Samonsky) for a drug cartel responsible for at least 13 murders. Fooled by Mycroft's ex into believing the exorbitant stud fees were well spent, the man can't come out publicly without suffering further losses and humiliation but he can exact a brutal form of revenge.
The hitman proves both easier and harder to catch than Sherlock believes as the man he knows to be the killer doesn't have the same fingerprints left at the scene. Although the NYPD is unable to connect him to the murders on the books and the recent attempt at the Marchioness' life, a little creative backtracking through the killer's past does offer results.
Aside from a mystery that plays on themes of one of Doyle's original stories, while taking its own myriad path to the truth, "The Marchioness" also offers a rare moment of vulnerability for the detective in opening up at an AA meeting and several fun scenes between the pair and Watson (particularly after the detective deduces his partner slept with his brother in London). Mycroft's return and the possibility of his further relations with Watson may mean we'll be seeing more of Sherlock's brother in the near future.
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