Just outside St. Mary Mead stands Gossington Hall, home of Colonel and Dolly Bantry, Mary the maid discovers a dead body in the library - a young woman has been strangled. In addition to the local police, Mrs. Bantry turns to her friend and neighbor, Jane Marple, for help. When the focus of the investigation becomes the Majestic Hotel where the victim was a dancer named Ruby, and Colonel Bantry a frequent diner, Mrs. Bantry and Miss Marple decide to take a suite there to do some sleuthing of their own and to establish Colonel Bantry's innocence.