Thames-side pub landlady Sadie (Day) is murdered after discovering an unpublished Charles Dickens manuscript in her cellar. But she's already turned it over to her friend, sports reporter Mike (Jones), who's trying to reinvent himself as an investigative journalist. He's willing to hook up with police press officer Kate (Cox) and even a dockside tramp (Jacobi) if they can help him. But a century-old crime described by Dickens (played in flashbacks by Jacobi) might lead Mike to solving Sadie's murder and figuring out who's trying to grab the manuscript from him.