Sir John Phillips, the Harley Street Surgeon, and his beautiful nurse Jane Harden are almost too nervous to operate. The emergency case on the table before them is the Home Secretary - and both have very good, personal reasons to wish him dead. Within hours he does die. Although the operation itself was a complete success.....

Hercule Poirot finds it disagreeable to have to take his aperitif outside on a wind-swept autumn day. He dislikes even more the staged drama of a young man lying artistically at the pool edge, the middle-aged woman with a revolver, and the red paint dripping into the water. This was not the entertainment for lunch at an English country house......especially when the careful display was ruined. Poirot was looking at a man who, if not dead, was at least dying....

The setting is idyllic.....a luxury island mansion in an unspoilt New Zealand wilderness. The party-goers are glamorous....they include a world-famous opera soprano, her millionaire 'companion', the artistic elite of three continents - and the distinguished detective, Alleyn of The Yard.