A several-storeyed gothic mystery-romance in which Sissy, or Jade, and her crippled younger brother -- missionary youngsters -- return from China to the home of their dying grandfather, Jade, with a rare figurine. There she meets unmarried cousins, one suddenly widowed, with another murder to follow; and at grandfather's deathbed-side, she marries one of them -- Shea only to misplace her distrust in him when she is the possible next victim. . . . Semiprecious stuff, of course, in a 19th century setting, but not too much nonsense.