'There is at Christmas a spirit of goodwill. People who do not feel amiable are putting great
pressure on themselves to appear amiable! If you dam the stream of natural behaviour mon ami
sooner or later the dam bursts and a cataclysm occurs!' It is Christmas Eve. The Lee family
reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture followed by a high-pitched wailing
scream. Upstairs the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood his throat slashed.
But when Hercule Poirot who is staying in the village with a friend for Christmas offers to
assist he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. It seems everyone had
their own reason to hate the old man...
