When park ranger Anna Pigeon learns that her sister is deathly ill, she travels to New York to be with her, but while she is there she becomes involved in a strange murder investigation.
Recounts the events surrounding the 1976 murder of Deborah Gardner, a Peace Corps volunteer who was killed in the island nation of Tonga by a fellow volunteer, who was later allowed to return home as a free man.
Marina Gregg, an American actress, is in St. Mary Mead to make a movie. While there she hosts a party- where one of the guests is poisoned- a fate designed for Marina Gregg. Miss Marple is soon on the trail of the murderer.