The ancient legend of the savage hound that first made its appearance at the horrible death of the drunken Hugo Baskerville, persisted in the family history along with the fact that many of the male Baskervilles died violent and unnatural deaths. It was the mysterious death of the contemporary head of the family and the report that the legendary hound had been seen again that brought Sherlock Holmes upon the scene. Then, with a background of the Devon moors, he solves a mystery and averts another terrible tragedy by those unique methods of deduction which have turned this immortal character of fiction into a being almost as real as flesh and blood.