James Bentley is convicted and sentenced for the murder of Mrs McGinty, a char-lady, who was found dead at her home, in the small village of Broadhinny. Superintendent Spence questions Bentley's involvement in the murder and calls in Poirot to further investigate. Poirot heads to Broadhinny, where he is pleasantly surprised to find Mrs Oliver also in the neighbourhood, adapting one of her books with the local playwright, Robin Upward. Mrs Oliver stays with Robin and his ageing mother, Mrs Upward, to whom he is devoted. Poirot has the unpleasant experience of lodging with the Summerhayes in their crumbling manor house. Poirot discovers that Mrs McGinty bought a bottle of ink shortly before her death and must have had a reason to write a letter. He visits Mrs McGinty's house, and finds that Mrs McGinty's niece and her husband, Joe and Bessie Burch, have inherited it. When examining Mrs McGinty's possessions, Poirot comes across a copy of the Sunday Comet, a popular newspaper, which had been published three days before her death. The newspaper has a section missing from the middle pages. An article has been cut out. On his return to London, Poirot acquires the missing article. The article asks, 'Where Are These Women Now?' and inquires about the whereabouts of two women - Lily Gamboll and Eva Kane. A photograph of each of them, taken about thirty years before, accompanies the article. Lily Gamboll, a bespectacled child had been convicted of murdering her aunt with a meat chopper and Eva Kane had been the lover of Alfred Craig and governess to his children. He had been convicted of murdering his wife and burying her in the cellar. Eva Kane had fled British shores after Craig was sentenced and was believed to have had a daughter. Lily disappeared after her release from juvenile care. Poirot surmises that Mrs McGinty might have recognised one of the photographs and pays a visit to Pamela Horsfall, the writer of the article. Poirot quickly realises that Miss Horsfall is not a journalist concerned with the facts of a story, only the sensation. He does however find out some very useful information - Miss Horsfall received a letter from a Mrs McGinty, which claimed that she knew the whereabouts of one of the women in the article, asking if this information was worth anything. A standard reply was sent to the wrong address. Poirot now has a very clear idea of an ulterior motive for the murder of Mrs McGinty. Perhaps Mrs McGinty discovered something connected to either Lily Gamboll or Eva Kane while on her rounds as a char-lady, something that her well-to-do employees would very much like to remain hidden! Poirot returns to Broadhinny and starts to conduct inquiries at the houses where Mrs McGinty was employed. He receives a very cold welcome from Guy Carpenter, local MP and his glamorous wife, Eve. Eve is so vain that she will not wear her glasses even though she is very short sighted. Dr Rendell is friendly, but his wife Shelagh, is positively unnerved to meet Poirot. Poirot knows that he has managed to get to someone, when he is pushed under a train - fortunately saved by a passing army sergeant. Poirot realises that there are three women who are the right age to be Lily Gamboll or the daughter of Eva Kane - Mrs Summerhayes, Mrs Carpenter and Mrs Rendell. Only Mrs Upward is the correct age to be Eva Kane herself - but she is apparently confined to a wheelchair and has a son, not a daughter. During a cocktail party, hosted by Robin and Mrs Upward, Poirot reveals copies of the photographs from the Sunday Comet of Lily Gamboll and Eva Kane. Mrs Upward confesses to having seen the picture of Lily Gamboll, but refuses to say where she had seen it. The following morning, Poirot notices what could be the murder weapon, a sugar hammer on display at Long Meadows, where he is lodging with Major and Mrs Summerhayes. A few minutes later, Mrs Oliver calls Poirot to tell him that she thinks Joe Burch is the killer. The Burches' had money troubles and with Mrs McGinty dead they would inherit her cottage. That evening, Mrs Oliver and Robin depart to the theatre to see Robin's latest production "Abandoned". When they return to Laburnums Mrs Oliver is shaken to find Mrs Upward strangled to death. It appears that Mrs Upward had taken coffee with her murderer. The evidence of lipstick on a coffee cup and the strong scent of perfume clearly suggested that the murder was committed by a woman. The next day, Maureen Summerhayes admits to visiting Mrs Upward the previous night, but when she arrived at the Laburnums no-one had answered. Poirot decides to visit Bentley in Prison and they discuss Maude Williams, a colleague he had worked with at Breather and Scuttle Real Estate and someone he had taken a liking to. Bentley tells Poirot that he thinks Mrs McGinty thought Mrs Upward was in someway connected to the article published in the Sunday Comet. Poirot focuses on why anyone would keep the photograph. Vanity seems unlikely, but either sentiment or hatred might serve as motives. Could the killer be someone who wished to take revenge on the person in the picture, perhaps one of the children whose father had murdered their mother, incited by Eva Kane? The following morning Miss Sweetiman, the postmistress, tells Poirot that she met Joe Burch on the night of the murder. They had a romantic rendezvous near Laburnums when she noticed a woman walk into Mrs Upward's house. Miss Sweetiman is unable to identify the woman, but is certain that it was the murderer. Poirot bumps into Shelagh Rendell who informs him that her housekeeper took a message from Mrs Upward on the night she was murdered. Mrs Upward had invited her to come over for coffee, but Mrs Rendell had just taken her medication and fell asleep. Later that day Poirot meets Maude Williams in a local tea room. She tells Poirot that she has been rummaging inside the homes of those living in Broadhinny to try and find something that might help prove Bentley's innocence. When Poirot mentions the name Evelyn Hope, Maude goes pale and abruptly leaves. Poirot returns to Long Meadows and is confronted by Eve Carpenter who insists she did not kill Mrs Upward. She admits that on the night of the murder, her butler took a phone message from Mrs Upward asking her to come over for coffee. She did not accept Mrs Upward's invitation. Suddenly, Mrs Summerhayes comes barging through the room, pulling out drawers in search of her Ministry of Agriculture form. Poirot looks at the mess created and decides to replace the contents of the drawers. Upon replacing the contents, he finds a photograph of Eva Kane with "My mother" written on the back, but Poirot had checked the same drawer a short time before and the photograph had not been there. The following day, Poirot gathers the people of Broadhinny at the Summerhayes' home. At first, Poirot seems about to accuse Eve Carpenter, after all, the strong scent of perfume and the lipstick left on the coffee cups pointed to her. However, the photograph with "My mother" written on the back had been discovered at Mrs Summerhayes home. Poirot reveals that the photograph had been planted... by Robin Upward. Robin is Eva Kane's son; we had assumed that Eva Kane's child was a girl because the Sunday Comet had told us so. As an adopted son of Mrs Upward, Robin knew that any scandal might upset his position in her household, and the murder of Mrs McGinty was committed because she had discovered and confronted Robin with the photograph. In fact, Mrs McGinty thought that Mrs Upward herself was Eva Kane, not realising that Robin was adopted. When Mrs Upward recognised the photograph of Eva Kane, she consciously misled Poirot into thinking that it was the other photograph to which she had reacted. She wished to have time to confront Robin, but anticipating this, he invited three convenient female suspects to her house that evening. Robin killed Mrs Upward while Mrs Oliver waited in the car outside. He planted evidence suggesting that the murderer was a woman and then, on the way to the theatre pretended to call his mother. Instead, Robin impersonated Mrs Upward and made the three calls to Mrs Carpenter, Mrs Rendell and Mrs Summerhayes inviting them to come over for coffee. He had then let Mrs Oliver find the body on their return from the theatre. Days after the murder, in a desperate bid to incriminate Maureen Summerhayes, Robin planted the photograph in her living room drawer, not realising that Poirot had just replaced the contents of the drawer a short time before. The secrets of those living in Broadhinny are uncovered; Eve Carpenter had worked as an exotic dancer. Maude Williams was the daughter of Alfred Craig and Eva Kane was her governess. She was the woman seen by Miss Sweetiman entering Laburnums. She had intended to kill Mrs Upward but discovered that she had already been murdered and fled. Mrs Rendell, who suffers from neurosis, was the person that had tried to push Poirot onto the railway tracks. She feared that Poirot had come to Broadhinny to investigate her husband, who was believed to have assisted in the suicide of a number of terminally ill people. Outside the courts, Maude Williams greets Bentley who has been cleared and released for the murder of Mrs McGinty.