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Main characters: Hercule Poirot
Captain Hastings
Monsieur Hautet
Mr. Bex
Family Renauld
Family Daubreuil
Captain Hastings, Hercule's best friend, makes an unforgettable experience on the train, where he meets a wonderful woman, called Cinderella. Upon arrival Captain Hastings tells Poirot how impressed he was by the new acquaintance. As usual Hercule pays attention to his friend's narration.
Poirot is worried as he views his daily mail. Someone urgently need's Poirot's help.
The detective and Captain Hastings leave immediately, but unfortunately when they arrive the author of the letter is already dead.
The victim is a gentleman named Mr. Renauld. His corpse was found in a ditch near his house. He was stabbed on his back, which indicates a brutal murder.
When Hercule and Hastings enter the victim's house the examining magistrate Monsieur Hautet and the commissary Mr. Bex are already there. The latter seem quite surprised to see the famous Belgian detective. Poirot explains briefly the reason of his visit and they begin with the investigation. According to the staff the night before, Mr. Renauld was visited by a female person. This visitor left Renauld's house in a big hurry. Finally Renauld went to bed. Mrs. Renauld said that at night two masked men came into their bedroom and bound her hands and feet. They dragged Mr. Renauld out of the bedroom, as they wanted him to reveal some "secret". In the morning Mrs. Renauld was released by her staff.
After this story Mrs. Renauld has to identify her husband. She walks out and seems to be in a stable condition, though when she sees her husband's body she faints.
Since it is a rather complicated case Mr. Giraud from Sûrete Paris is assigned to support the investigating team. Poirot cannot stand this young man, because he has a completely different opinion as far as solving of criminal cases is concerned.
After the interrogation of the staff, one finds out that Mr. Renauld had a love affair with his neighbour, Madame Daubreuil. Mr. Renauld's son who was supposed to be travelling to South America shows suddenly up and confirms a big quarrel he had with his father the day before his father was killed. After the argument, Mr. Renauld changed his testament and appointed Mrs. Renauld to be the only heir.
One morning Captain Hastings meets outside the house the beautiful woman, whom he met before on the train. She explains to be there only by coincidence. Hastings tells the lady about the case. When she sees the corpse of Mr. Renauld she faints as well. Captain Hastings runs into the house for a glass of water. After a few minutes Cinderella feels better and leaves right away. Captain Hastings finds out that the weapon is missing and begins to suspect Cinderella. Somehow embarrassed he tells Hercule the latest news. Poirot is sure to have had a similar case before.
In order to refresh his memory he leaves for London, where he continues his investigations. While he is away a second identically murdered corpse is being found.
This time it is an old man who can't be identified by anybody. Poirot is surprised, still he thinks he can reconstruct the chronology of the murders. He tells Hastings what he was able to find out:
Indeed there was an identical case before. Also here two men in disguise broke into a bedroom, tied the woman and took with them her husband in order to find out a "secret". The day after the people would find a stabbed corpse. After long investigations the wife admitted her involvement in that crime. She encouraged her lover Georges Conneau to have this plan of killing her husband. Finally she was acquitted of that crime and George Conneau was nowhere to find.
Poirot finds out that this woman is Madame Daubreuil and Mr. Conneau was Mr. Renauld. As a wanted murder he left the country for the time being and came back after some time. Unfortunately after he had returned he bought his new house near his former love. Madame Daubreuil took an advantage of the situation and started to blackmail Mr. Conneau - Renauld. Poirot finds out that Mr. Renauld's son had an affair with Mrs. Daubreil's daughter. This explains the argument between Mr. Renauld and his son.
Everything seems to indicate that Jack Renauld (the son) is guilty, that is why Giraud arrests the young man. Poirot knows that there were two people involved, and he is convinced that Jack Renauld was not one of them. He finds in Jack Renauld's room a photograph of an attractive woman. When he shows that photo to Hastings the latter becomes pale, because the picture shows Cinderella. Poirot and Hastings try to find Cinderella and they succeed.
Finally Poirot knows how everything happened:
Madame Daubreuil blackmailed Mr. Renauld. He refused to continue payments and wanted to disappear. In order to do it in a perfect way he would have to be dead.
One day some beggar appeared at Mr. Renauld's property: This was a perfect opportunity for Mr. Renauld. He killed the intruder and afterwards he put his victim's clothes on. He didn't know that Madame Daubreil's daughter saw the whole incident. In the evening Cinderella's twin sister came to see Mr. Renauld to tell him that she was in love with his son. He tried to get rid of her because he wanted to throw the corpse into the ditch, and then disappear afterwards.
Mrs. Renauld tells a lie about the two men, the same story which Mr. Renauld invented years back.
Now Poirot has to prove that Madame Daubreil's daughter was the one who stabbed Mr. Renauld, because he was against her affair with Jack. Hercule Poirot asks Mrs. Renauld to tell her son that he would be excluded from the testament. The next night Poirot catches Madame Daubreil's daughter as she tries to kill Mrs. Renauld.
Poirot is very proud to teach the young and arrogant Giraud a lesson.
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