A distraught Johanna Oakley wanders the streets of London seeking news of her missing fiance, Mark ingestrie. She is befriended by Colonel Jeffrey, who is searching for his lost friend Thornhill, last seen in Sweeney Todd's Fleet Street barber-shop. Todd's apprentice, Tobias Ragg, is struggling to break free from his terrifying and sadistic master, while the barber himself is frantically trying to sell a string of pearls. Meanwhile, just around the corner in Bell Yard, the enigmatic Jarvis Williams has landed himself a fine job - making the most delicious pies in London, to Mrs Lovett's secret recipe...

"The String of Pearls'" - the original tale of Sweeney Todd, a classic of British horror - was first published as a weekly serial in 1846-47 by Edward Lloyd, the King of the Penny Dreadfuls. One of the earliest detective stories, it became an important source for Bram Stoker's Dracula. After 157 years of obscurity, it appears here for the first time in book form.