The story begins with a visit to 221B Baker Street from Steve Dixie, a black man and a cowardly ruffian who warns Sherlock Holmes to keep away from Harrow.

She was not really willing to do it, especially after her lawyer, Mr Sutro, told her that the legal agreement drawn up by this prospective buyer would forbid her to remove any possessions from the house when she moved out.

Holmes, seeing some trunks with Italian placenames on them, realizes that her late son Douglas's belongings must hold the key.

He instructs Mrs Maberley to try to get Mr Sutro to spend a couple of nights at Three Gables, to keep the house guarded.

Dixie is now inclined to help Holmes if he can, to avoid any indiscreet talk about the Perkins lad who met his end so tragically.

The happenings at Three Gables, and the information Holmes obtained from Langdale Pike, "his human book of reference upon all matters of social scandal", have all added up to something.

"The Adventure of the Three Gables" has been criticized for its reliance on racist stereotypes in the portrayal of the black boxer, Steve Dixie.

This contrasts strikingly with Doyle's earlier sympathetic portrayal of an interracial marriage, in "The Adventure of the Yellow Face" (1893).

[1] Dakin saw Holmes's crude jeers at Dixie as completely out of character for the detective, and this was one reason behind his conclusion that someone other than Doyle had in fact written the story.

[1] Others, including Walter Pond, have rejected Dakin's argument and concluded that there is no reason to doubt Doyle's authorship.

The cast included Frank Singuineau as Steve Dixie and Selma Vaz Dias as Isadora Klein.

Douglas Maberley is depicted as Mary Maberley's grandson instead of her son; he dies in his grandmother's house after a month of suffering from a bout of pneumonia caused by a savage beating he received from Mrs Klein's hired boxers; Langdale Pike defines himself as a benevolent counterpart of Charles Augustus Milverton (the eponym of an earlier story about a blackmailer, although his last name is slightly different) and points out that he suppresses more than he exposes; and Steve Dixie retains some enmity towards Holmes and brawls with Watson during the break-in.

In CBS' contemporary Sherlock Holmes adaptation Elementary, the season 2 premiere episode, "Step Nine", features a case very briefly involving a character named Langdale Pike,[13] the owner of a 3D printer manufacturing company that Holmes seeks out via a sign requesting something from him, which he holds up in front of a security camera for an extended period of time.