The main storyline is about a boy whose older sister vanished many years ago when she wandered into the snow. She basically wandered out one night when it was snowing and never came back.
But before he reaches the smoldering wreckage he runs into the formidable Mrs. Jones, a botanist and adventurer who’s traveling across China on horseback with her young companion, Lung.
“Ever since Nora moved into the new apartment, strange things have been happening - cryptic phone calls, hidden messages, haunting visits by an invisible presence, and a doll that sometimes seems to be alive.”
“We live in the block next door to our old block now, in an apartment exactly like the old one, but it’s on the ground floor. We have been given some second-hand furniture by the parish, and the women have also given as some things.”