The narrator, Edward Cayley, arrives at Iyot Lock for finalizing the terms of inheritance of Iyot House where he stayed when he was eight years old with his Aunt Kestrel and another cousin Leonora, almost forty years ago. He is filled with nostalgia about the place and has a feeling of Deja vu which he can't understand. After he feels a presence in the church graveyard, and experiencing the same feeling as he is about to sleep in his hotel, he hears the crying o a china doll buried in the church graveyard. I PERSON
Fifty years earlier, Kestrel Dickinson is getting her house ready for the children of her sisters, Edward from Dora and Leonard from Violet. Both sisters hated each other. After the death of Dora, Edward is sent to live with Kestrel who writes to Violet to send Leonard to give company to Edward. Edward was quiet and sensitive while Leonard was demanding and spoilt.
Leonard throws frequent tantrums and Edward begins to feel wary of her. But, they begin to have a connection nonetheless. Leonora receive lots of gifts from her mother, but she longs for a royal Indian doll. When Edward says this to Aunt Kestrel decides to get one for her, but she gets a porcelain doll, different than the one Leonora wanted and so Leonora throws the doll away. She is grounded till she apologizes, which she doesn't. Her mother arrives soon after and she leaves much to the relief of Mrs. Mullen who believed that Leonora was possessed.
After Aunt Kestrel died, he and Leonora are invited to hear her will by Kestrel’s solicitor. Leonora expects to get maximum share as she was the daughter of eldest sister of Kestrel. The solicitor however, informs them that Kestrel had given her entire inheritance to Edward while Leonora was to have the doll she rejected violently on her birthday. Leonora leaves, but Edward becomes determined to heed his aunt's last wishes. He takes her to the graveyard where he digs out the doll. After washing it, both of them are horror struck to find that the doll had grown old. It had the body of an old woman with exactly same cracked skull.
They bury it in the same spot and leave next morning. During his travels, Edward finds the Royal Indian Doll and decides to buy it for Leonard who had given birth to a girl. He himself marries. Leonora contacts him soon and tells her that she is left penniless after the death of her husband and her daughter is suffering from a grave disease. He allows her to live at Iyot House. When he visits them one day, he discovers that her daughter has Progeria and has aged prematurely like the doll she rejected. She gives him the Royal Indian doll back and chides him for giving it to her.
Soon, his wife gives birth to a daughter, but falls ill during their stay in India. She loses her hair and her skin gets riddled with pockmarks. They travel back to England and visit several doctors but find no cure. He discovers the box of the doll Leonora gave back to him. Hoping to give it to his daughter, he opens it and finds that the doll had lost its hair and had pockmarked face just like his daughter
