


At dinner that night, Charles, who is viewed by the Newtons as a sophisticated adventurer, gives Charlie an emerald ring, and she begins to hum the "Merry Widow" waltz, the same tune of which Charles had just been thinking. Charlie is especially elated by the arrival of her uncle, as she was named after him and the two have a seemingly telepathic relationship. At the train station, Charles is met by his brother-in-law Joseph, his young nephew Roger and his two nieces, Charlie and Ann.

Charles escapes to his unsuspecting older sister Emma Newton's home in the small town of Santa Rosa, California. Serial murderer Charles Oakley is forced to flee Philadelphia when the police come to suspect him in the strangulations of three rich widows.
