While organizing a murder mystery game for a village festival, an inescapable feeling of dread settles on crime novelist Adriane Oliver. In desperation, she summons her old friend Hercule Poirot. Her instincts are proved correct when the “pretend” victim is discovered with an all-too-real rope wrapped around her neck. The two sleuths soon discover that in murder hunts, whether mock or real, everyone is playing a part.