Miss Marple investigates the downfall of an optimistic young couple who ignored the warnings of a gypsy and built a dream home on allegedly cursed land.

Miss Marple aids a young mother and son by spiriting them away to the estate of an eccentric botanist, not knowing that it will soon become the scene of murder.

While holidaying on the Caribbean island of St. Honoré, Miss Marple is drawn into a case of intrigue and black magic when a garrulous old major who bragged of owning a photograph of a known murderer dies under mysterious circumstances.