'You're a terrible daughter, you've always been a terrible daughter, the very worst that any loving mother has ever had to endure. I want no more of your pathetic cards, letters or telephone calls; I do not wish to hear from you EVER!...AM I CLEAR?' Without waiting for a reply, the blonde rose to her feet, turned on her heel and walked out of the bar and into a waiting car. The brunette sat very, very still for a few moments then, pulling herself together she hailed a waiter and asked him to call her a cab. Lucinda StClair had never felt more unwanted, unloved or alone. Of course, Lucinda was no stranger to these feelings...why would she be? This had been her life's pattern from her earliest memories but Lucinda was an optimist, she had always dreamed of loving and being loved. Lucinda is constantly searching for the love that she feels is waiting for her just around the corner.

"Silken Threads, Tangled Webs" continues Lucindas story. Previously in "Tarnished Lives, Tainted Dreams," we learned how she and her brothers had grown up in a dysfunctional home. Lucinda had been forced into a relationship with an older man who could have been useful to her father. Following his death, she had given birth to twin boys. Denied further contact with her maternal and paternal relations, she made two lifelong friends, met and married Francis StClair, and gave birth to two more children. The marriage failed, mostly because of Lucindas unrealistic expectations from marriage. Her father had disappeared, shortly after his release from prison, her mother and brothers disowned her, but a mysterious letter had brought her to France, where she made some shocking discoveries about the past. What was Marcuss terrible secret, and why did Lucindas mother and brothers go to such extreme lengths to make sure she never contacted her Trehearne relations?

In February 1985, three brothers and their wives travel to Rio de Janeiro to see the carnival. On the last day of their holiday, one of the women disappears in a busy marketplace. Despite a frantic search, the others have to return to Britain and leave the search to the Brazilian police. They are left to wonder and worry about what happened to Jean. There was no ransom note, and the money in her bank account was never touched. Seven years later, her husband, Norman, has to go through the distressing procedure to have his wife, Jean, declared to be missing presumed dead. How could an English woman simply disappear? Is she being held against her will and forced to live in one of the favelas? Is she still alive, or has she been killed and buried in a secret grave? Will they ever discover the truth about what happened to Jean? Will she ever be found, or will she remain forever lost in Rio?