Dorothy Desmond, a naive young woman from Kentucky who becomes virtually penniless after her father (an editor) is shot by a political rival and her mother dies of shock. Believing she has a talent for writing, Dorothy travels to New York to find work at a newspaper. She secures a position and is assigned to the Chinatown section of the city to cover a story, which presumably involves the titular jade necklace and the "perils" hinted at by the serial's title.