"It would be bad enough if the daughter I loved so well [were] lying beside her grandmother in Greenwood Cemetery, but this suspense and uncertainty are 1,000 times worse." - Francis Arnold, Dorothy's father

It was the great mystery of its time and still reads like an episode of Law and Order today. In December 1910, a wealthy young woman, thought to be sheltered and above reproach, goes missing shortly after being seen in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The police are called in and begin to question those closest to her, only to have her father, a wealthy manufacturer, insist it must be foul play and that his daughter was on good terms with her entire family. Likewise, he claims that though she was in her mid-20s and in the prime of life, she had no serious romantic attachments. The mother tearfully backs these claims up.

Eventually, far different information leaks out, like the fact that the victim was an aspiring writer who kept much about her work a secret, that she had been trying to cut ties with her family for some time, and, most interesting of all, that there certainly was a boyfriend, and that her family had tried to hide their relationship. For a time, all eyes are on the romantic interest, who is significantly older but a longtime friend of the family. In fact, the victim's brother is seen in beautiful Florence, Italy, beating the boyfriend up in a failed attempt to get more information about his sister's disappearance. Letters surface, as do photographs, but ultimately nothing to indicate the he had anything at all to do with her disappearance. Finally, everyone gives up and turns their attentions elsewhere.