Introduction and context

The elderly John Peter Nanjulian and his sister Susan Nanjulian live in a decayed mansion with a garden being slowly sold off for building plots. They represent a traditional Troy family which has run to seed; or rather has failed so to run and is on the point of extinction. John Peter is a cultured man with many skills from which making money is absent. Caius Hocken consults him on the cleaning of the musical box. Q would have known similar families in the Fowey area.