Hercule Poirot tries desperately to save a kidnapped child, Miss Jane Marple goes beyond the grave to protect a dead man's heirs from disaster, and Mr. Harley Quin tracks down a cunning killer.

Sir George and Lady Stubbs, the hosts of a village celebration, hit upon the novel idea of staging a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the well-known crime writer, agrees to organize their murder hunt. Ariadne is puzzled by the abundance of help she's getting, and her mystery-writer's mind becomes suspicious, so she calls her friend Hercule Poirot for help. What they find is a couple on the brink of divorce, a rich Lord and a dizzy...

An outbreak of apparent kleptomania at a student hostel is not normally the sort of crime that arouses Hercule Poirot's interest, but it is a bizarre list of stolen and vandalised items: a stethoscope, some lightbulbs, some old flannel trousers, a box of chocolates, a slashed rucksack, some boracic powder and a diamond ring later found in a bowl of a soup. Celia Austin quickly confesses to the pettier incidents to attract the attention of a male student....