When Hercule Poirot and his sidekick Arthur Hastings arrive in the French village of Merlinville-sur-Mer to meet their client Paul Renauld they learn from Paris police that he has been found that morning stabbed in the back with a letter opener and left in a newly dug grave adjacent to a local golf course. Among the plausible suspects are Renauld's wife Eloise, his son Jack, an unknown visitor of the previous day, Renauld's immediate neighbor Madame Daubreuil, and the mysterious "Cinderella" of Hasting's recent acquaintance-all of whom Poirot has reason to suspect. Poirot's powers of investiga