Young Elinor Carlisle, engaged to marry the dashing Roddy Winter, finds herself charged with the fatal poisoning of Mary Gerrard, her rival in love. Poirot has the job of saving Elinor, but the evidence against her is overwhelming.

A wealthy British heiress honeymooning on a Nile cruise ship is stalked by a former friend, whose boyfriend she had stolen before making him her new husband.

Poirot is spending a week-end with the Angkatells, at their country house called The Hollow.