Mysteriet Edwin Drood 1-2

John Jasper,opium-addicted choirmaster at Cloisterham cathedral,lusts after Rosa Bud,schoolgirl betrothed of his nephew Edwin Drood and fantasises about killing the boy. Edwin himself will inherit a fortune if he marries fellow orphan Rosa. Two other orphans,twins Helena and Neville Landless,arrive from Ceylon to complete their education,thanks to kindly vicar Crisparkle and his mother. Helena gets on well with Rosa but there is antipathy between Neville and Edwin who end up brawling. Neville also tells Reverend Crisparkle that he attacked his brutal stepfather and alerts the vicar to Jasper's attitude to Rosa. Edwin is also informed about this obsession by Princess Puffer,who owns the opium den frequented by his uncle,who is disconcerted by her visit. Next evening Jasper invites Neville and Edwin to a drug-fuelled evening at his house,after which the boys walk home together.

Next morning Edwin has gone missing though Neville swears he last saw him alive and confesses that he and Helena are Edwin's illegitimate half-siblings,come to England to find their family. Jasper has him placed under curfew with lawyer Mr Grewgious,whose clerk Bazzard finds evidence to support Neville's claim that Captain Drood fathered twins with a native girl in Ceylon. Jasper declares his love to an appalled Rosa who,with Helena,also moves to Mr Grewgious's house where she announces her belief that Jasper killed his nephew. Crisparkle and Bazzard get sexton Durdles to open the Drood family tomb to exonerate Neville and solve the mystery of Edwin Drood but their finding surprises all of them.