"Hercule Poirot returns home after an agreeable luncheon to find an angry woman waiting to berate him outside his front door. Her name is Sylvia Rule, and she demands to know why Poirot has accused her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met. She is furious to be so accused, and deeply shocked. Poirot is equally shocked, because he too has never heard of any Barnabas Pandy, and he certainly did not send the letter...

In 1931, the world's greatest detective, Hercule Poirot, finds his plans for a much-needed, restful Christmas holiday thwarted by a murder investigation and has less than a week to solve the crime and prevent more murders while someone plans to wreak holiday havoc on his life.

Although Hercule Poirot has retired and is now devoting his time to growing vegetable marrows, when murder occurs nearly on his doorstep he once again gets involved with finding the killer.

Hercule Poirot is travelling by luxury passenger coach from London to the exclusive Kingfisher Hill estate. Richard Devonport has summoned the renowned detective to prove that his fiance, Helen, is innocent of the murder of his brother, Frank. Yet, she readily confessed to the crime. What secret could possibly be worth hanging for? The coach is forced to stop when a distressed woman demands to get off, insisting that if she stays in her seat, she...