 Jessica Fletcher has finally accepted House of Dunbar tycoon Brian s wife Emma Soon Dunbar s invitation to visit Hong Kong; while she s admiring Burmese jade, her host gets kidnapped, asking a $200,000 cash ransom. Police Insp. McLaughlin suggests the ransom will probably be quickly paid and insure a release, it s almost routine in the last years before the PRC s takeover, and so it happens. Unlike Emma, Brian is inclined to believe it was just another move by his merger-candidate Kai Kuan, whose son David is actually dating Brian s daughter April Dunbar, a forbidden love. Dunbar-executive Mark Tower, who was found out selling goods supposedly destroyed in a warehouse fire to Shangai by womens apparel-division head Louise Walton, offers his services to the Kuans. Even though the merger talks look like a dead-end, the sumptuous 110th Dunbars anniversary banquet goes on with the Kuans for appearances sake, serving a century egg- which kills Brian by cyanide concentrate, some of which is found in firm heir Emma s ceramics studio...