Sir Reuben Astwell was murdered ten days previously at his country house, Mon Repos, when he was violently hit on the back of the head with a club; his nephew Charles Leverson has been arrested. Sir Reuben's wife, Lady Astwell, is convinced that the true criminal is the late man's secretary, Owen Trefusis, although she doesn't have a shred of evidence to back up this claim, relying instead of her much-vaunted and self-proclaimed "intuition." She sends her young companion, Lily Margrave, to Poirot to employ him on the case and Poirot accepts, partly because he senses that Lily has something to hide.

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became the best selling novelist in history. She wrote 79 crime mysteries and collections, and saw her work translated into more languages than Shakespeare.