Plot

While Poirot is staying at an exclusive Cornish resort, he meets a beautiful heiress whose life is in danger.

While enjoying a vacation at an exclusive resort on the Cornish coast, Poirot and Hastings meet beautiful young heiress Magdala Buckley. Known to her friends as Nick, she confides to them that she has recently survived several events that might have taken her life: a heavy-framed picture dropping on her head, a boulder falling off a cliff, and failed brakes. When Poirot notices a bullet hole in her hat, they put her under their protection and discover that her dead fiance, a noted aviator killed in a tragic accident, had named her as heir in his will. In the interim, his wealthy uncle is found to have died, making her the unexpected beneficiary of a great fortune. Poirot realizes this inheritance is the motive for continued attempts on her life, and in his quest for the the truth, he uncovers a tangled web of greed, forgery, drug addiction, fraud, poison, and murder.—G. Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)

A used car salesman takes diabolical liberties with a filthy drug addict. A woman makes a nuisance of herself in a wheelchair and another woman makes an exhibition of herself at a firework extravaganza. A man and a woman sit on a beach eating ice cream. A fat woman is feeding an ugly squashed faced dog with food from her own plate. The hero of this story falls over injuring his ankle whilst trying to attract the attention of an ancient waiter who is oblivious to the disaster that happened and a solicitor with a sour expression complains of having a visitor to his office on a weekend despite the door to his office being open. A woman from Yorkshire stays in a large house in a bedroom that is said in uninhabitable. A gardener and his son describe a disgusting affair of the slaughtering of a pig and his house keeper wife has a strange and questionable expression when answering the door to visitors. Meanwhile, a band at the hotel is playing a song which states that one should never be behind a bolted door with a man of ill repute, presumably the character in question has an ulterior motive.

While on holiday with Captain Hastings at the posh Majestic hotel on the Cornish coast, Hercule Poirot makes the acquaintance of Magdala 'Nick' Buckley, a young woman who lives nearby in the large but dilapidated estate called End House. She mentions to Poirot that she has had a bad run of luck in the last few days narrowly escaping injury when her car brakes failed and later when a huge boulder nearly fell on her from above. Poirot is soon convinced that the young woman's life is in danger, a fact that is apparently confirmed when another young woman wearing Miss Buckley's wrap is shot. As he delves into the case, he learns of a possible motive in the case - Miss Buckley is the unknowing beneficiary of a large personal fortune. He is puzzled however by one piece of information that simply does not seem to fit.—garykmcd

Poirot (David Suchet) and Hastings (Hugh Fraser) are staying at a Cornish resort. Conversing with Magdala "Nick" Buckley (Polly Walker), Poirot believes that someone's out to kill her, confirmed when he finds a bullet that Nick had thought to be a wasp shooting past her head. Poirot explains his concern to Nick, who doesn't believe him at first. Poirot suspects someone in Nick's inner circle: Nick's nearest living relative is a lawyer cousin, Charles Vyse (Christopher Baines), who arranged the re-mortgaging on End House for her to supply desperately needed funds. Her housekeeper's named Ellen (Mary Cunningham), and the lodge near End House is leased by Australians Mr Bert Croft (Jeremy Young) and Mrs Milly Croft (Carol MacReady). George Challenger (John Harding) (a Navy commander) has a soft spot for Nick. Nick's two closest friends are Freddie Rice (Alison Sterling), an abused wife, and Jim Lazarus (Paul Geoffrey), an art dealer in love with Freddie. Nick was to undergo appendix surgery six months earlier, and the Crofts suggested she make a will. Rice tells Hastings that Nick is a terrific liar. Charles hasn't seen Nick in a while but says that she has a devotion to the End house, which doesn't strike as true to Poirot.

Poirot doesn't understand who wants Nick dead: Charles would inherit End House and Freddie would get the rest of the estate - none of which is worth killing for. Nick calls a relative to stay with her for a few weeks, her distant cousin Maggie (Elizabeth Downes). When Maggie arrives, Nick hosts a party and everyone's present but George. Nick wears a black dress like Maggie when Freddie says that she never wears black. Meanwhile, a renowned pilot named Michael Seton has gone missing, sparking debate about his fate. Nick receives a call while the guests are enjoying the party. Later, Maggie is found dead, wearing Nick's shawl. Nick and Maggie had gone to freshen up inside the End House when everyone else was outside watching fireworks, after which Maggie took Nick's shawl. George is relieved to see Nick alive. Realizing that Maggie was killed by mistake under his nose, Poirot becomes furious, launching an investigation and finding Ellen was working instead of enjoying the festivities, but she knows nothing. However, Ellen tells him there's a secret compartment somewhere in the house, which Nick denies.

To protect Nick, Poirot tells everyone that she's going to a hospital and to leave her alone and asks her to not eat anything coming from an unknown place. The next day, the newspapers report that Michael Seton is dead, and Poirot correctly deduces that Nick received that information through the call. Nick confesses to Poirot that she and Michael were secretly engaged. Michael was the sole inheritor of vast wealth of his uncle (who had incidentally died just one week ago), and it's clear that wealth will go to Nick (Poirot confirms this with Michael's lawyer in London, who tells Hastings that according to the will everything goes to Magdala Buckley). Poirot suspects Freddie of trying to kill Nick to gain the money, but also thinks that Charles may have tried to kill her, unaware of the will or its contents. Poirot is wary of the Crofts: he asks Inspector Japp to inquire about them. Meanwhile, Poirot and Hastings find the love letters written by Michael, but don't find Nick's original will. Nick recalls sending it to Charles. Poirot questions Charles, who denies receiving it. Mr Croft tells Poirot that he sent Nick's will to Charles; Poirot believes one of the men is lying.

Another attempt on Nick's life occurs when she eats a boxed chocolate, allegedly sent by Poirot himself. The chocolates are laced with cocaine, but Nick is safe as she ate only one. The chocolates were supplied by Freddie, who claims that Nick phoned her to bring the chocolates. Freddie found Nick's voice a bit different. Poirot suspects Freddie, realizing that she's a cocaine addict with access to its supply via Jim. Later, a note demanding money is found, without any names. Poirot finds some love letters written to Michael and lies to everybody saying that Nick's dead and convinces her to play dead.

Charles tells Poirot that he's received Nick's will, which is read in End House, awarding her money to the Crofts for helping her father in Australia. Everyone's in disbelief, except the Crofts themselves; Nick's "ghost" appears, and it's revealed that the Crofts forged the will and sent it to Charles. Japp reveals that the Crofts are forgers. When they heard Nick was dead, they sent a fraudulent will to Charles. Nick claims that Crofts killed Maggie when they really wanted to kill her. Japp arrests the duo, but Poirot claims that they had no hand in the murder. Just then, somebody shoots at Freddie and misses. Poirot captures the man, Freddie's sick and dying husband.

Poirot reveals that the real murderer is Nick herself and that Michael was engaged to Maggie, not Nick. Both have the same name, Magdala Buckley, but the correspondence had taken place between Michael and Maggie. After learning of Michael's wealth and disappearance, Nick plotted to present herself as her cousin to usurp his wealth. The plot was her own work, engineering a reason for bringing Maggie to End House to kill her, preventing anybody from knowing the truth. George used to supply cocaine to both Freddie and Nick. Nick used her supply to poison the chocolates. The note about money was from Freddie's husband, who was constantly asking her for money. Nick is arrested, taking Freddie's cocaine box as a souvenir. Poirot tells George to either surrender himself or go away, leaving Freddie (who's stopped using cocaine) to recover from her addiction. The box taken by Nick contains a lethal dose of cocaine, which she uses to escape the gallows. In the end, Jim and Freddie decide to marry.