A story of family secrets and taboos, No Pockets in a Shroud unfolds like a Chinese box, a story within a story. The core story involves two brothers in love with the same woman. In the first generation, the mother, Miss Magg, loved the younger brother, Tigter Godbolt. However, an insecrure orphan, Miss magg wound up marrying the older staid brother, Reverend Godbolt, for secuity. Irnonically, years later, the daughter, Nefertiti, also marries the brother who was her parents' 'pick, ' as the original love triangle is mirrored in the next generation