Lily Kovner's first reaction to the news that a precious Torah has gone missing from the home of a Chinese government official in Shanghai is disbelief. She scoffs at her nickname, "the Jewish Miss Marple, " and rejects the prospect that she could be instrumental in recovering the Torah. Yet, Lily's devotion to her newfound Chinese-Jewish cousin, Ruth, trumps her skepticism. Along with her significant other, Simon, and Ruth, Lily undertakes another improbable quest plagued by threats, dangerous physical attack, and a likely murder. Ultimately, political intrigue stemming from China's strife-ridden pre-Communist era, as well as long-buried resentments of an ancient community, emerge as motives that led to the Torah's theft, point to its perpetrators, and ultimately reveal a unique and little-known aspect of vibrant Jewish communal life that survived and thrived throughout a multi-century diaspora that stretched from Iraq to India to China.