Even at a young age, Xiao Ming (boy Sherlock Holmes) has a reputation among his peers for his keen powers of observation. His budding skills are put to the test when he is tasked with finding a thief at school. However, mysteries always seem to find him when strange fires start out of seemingly nowhere and a classmate begins anonymously receiving flowers from a secret admirer. With the help of his older brother, Xiao Ming employs his skills of wit and deduction to unveil the truth hidden behind every mystery.

Mandarin Companion is a series of easy-to-read novels in Chinese that are fun to read and proven to accelerate language learning. Every book in the Mandarin Companion series is carefully written to use characters, words, and grammar that a learner is likely to know.

The Breakthrough Level is written using only 150 unique Chinese characters and is intended for Chinese learners who have obtained a low elementary or novice level of Chinese. Most learners will be able to approach this book after one year of traditional formal study, depending on the learner and program. This level is designed to help learners begin to read full-length texts in Chinese and combines simplicity of characters with an easy-to-understand storyline that helps beginners grow their vocabulary and language comprehension abilities.