When Tommy and Tuppence Beresford visit Tommy's elderly aunt at Sunny Ridge Nursing Home, Tuppence is told by another resident, Mrs. Lancaster, that the corpse of a child is hidden behind a fireplace. Tuppence realises there could be more to the old lady's words than she originally thought, especially when Tommy's aunt dies weeks later, and Mrs. Lancaster mysteriously disappears. With Tommy away on business, who better to help her than Miss Marple, who is visiting an old friend at the nursing home. With a cryptic painting on their hands, the two end up in the Norfolk village of Farrell St. Edmund to find the subject of their painting, a lone cottage in a wooded forest, while also trying to learn the closely-guarded secrets of the residents.