A Mrs Ernestine Todd, from Clapham, asks Poirot to help her find her cook, Eliza, who has disappeared. Poirot, who aims to accept only really significant cases, is at first insulted by such a trivial request. However, after he sees the contents of the missing cook's trunk, he decides the case could prove to be worthy of his talents.

Within hours of the Bonfire Night fireworks beginning Poirot finds himself investigating a violent death in Hastings' mews garage.

Poirot discovers a murder in his own block of flats, and goes on the trail of boisterous neighbours and strange nocturnal noises in the lift shaft.

Recovering from the horrors of World War I, British Army officer Arthur Hastings hopes to find peace and quiet at a country manor in the English countryside. But when the matriarch dies during the night from strychnine poisoning, Hastings enlists the help of an old friend staying nearby with other war refugees to help solve the murder: former Belgian police detective Hercule Poirot.