Lily's glamorous Auntie Tiger Lily is a Hollywood actress who once starred in the Tiger Lil action movies. Now she is visiting Lily's family in San Francisco's Chinatown to coordinate the Lion Salve float in the Chinese New Year parade. When the famous Goblin Pearls are stolen from Miss Lion Salve in the middle of the parade by a Chinatown gang, Lily and Auntie Tiger Lil are on the trail of a mystery that leads them to dangerous thieves and villainous business owners who are exploiting immigrant workers in their Chinatown clothing factory. Laurence Yep's foray into genre fiction offers mystery fans a bright and lively Chinese-American protagonist in an adventure distinguished by its setting and cultural details. (Ages 9-11)

What would you do if your famous movie-star aunt asked you to be a jar of ointment in Chinatown's New Year's parade? And what if disaster struck in the middle of the parade and someone stole the priceless Goblin Pearls right in front of you? Worse still, what if your great-aunt still thought she was the famous action heroine Tiger Lil and decided to catch the thieves? What else could you do but become her sidekick?

Lily is excited when Auntie Tiger Lil comes to San Francisco to arrange the Lion Salve float and marching unit for the New Year's parade. Most famous for the Tiger Lil series of action movies, she's now dabbling in publicity, and the Lion Salve account could finance her movie comeback. The float is sure to be the centerpiece of the parade, especially since Miss Lion Salve will be wearing the ancient Goblin Pearls that day.

The Goblin Pearls have always been trouble, and the day of the parade is no exception. When they're stolen in broad daylight, Tiger Lil isn't about to let some punks ruin her plans -- if the cops can't catch the thieves, she will. But everything is not what it seems, and Tiger Lil and Lily soon find themselves in the middle of a plot worthy of one of Auntie's movies. Will this be the end of Tiger Lil and her trusty sidekick, or will they live to sleuth another day?