From inside the cover: When Sara Dacre comes across a large red pendant at a twenty-cent jewelry stall she is tempted to buy it – especially when she bumps into her friend Gerry Hone, who persuades her that it will brighten up her old grey taffeta.

But soon she finds herself in the center of some strange events. On leaving the shop she and Gerry witness the scene of an accident – but nobody can agree what happened. And then when Gerry takes her to an automat for coffee he goes to the counter to order – and never comes back.

She left her cape in a guest-room and combed her hair by mellow lamplight that hardly reached the cloudy mirror in the carved frame. She saw a wan girl dressed in grey with the dull shine of old silver, a brilliant blob of crimson at her throat gathering up all the rays of muffled light and casting them back at the beholder like a flash of fire.