Russian Arkady Balagan is a world champion chess master. He is a brilliant but arrogant man. Watching his Canadian fiancée Rosemary Venturi murdered in Vancouver outside the Huxley Hotel - where he was performing in some chess matches and also residing at the time - has turned his life upside down. That incident has made him unable or unwilling to leave the comfort and safety of the hotel. He is also unable to pay the mounting hotel bills, which he unabashedly racks up. He starts to use his sharp analytical skills to solve police cases for a fee to help pay those bills. But his newly developed agoraphobia means that he needs to enlist the help of anyone around him - mostly groupies and hotel staff, the latter which includes those who are trying to get him to pay up or kick him out of the hotel - to do the actual legwork. Despite the urging of Rosemary's sister Pippa Venturi, the case that Arkady is unwilling to get involved in is Rosemary's death. Arkady and Pippa disagree and that unwillingness is either because he would rather wallow in self-pity, or he is just a self-absorbed narcissist.