在这部命案目睹记剧情/悬疑/犯罪片中,Elspeth McGillicuddy, an old friend of Miss Marple's, witnesses a strangulation murder in a passing train through the window of her coach compartment. When Police Inspector Slack can't find a body along the tracks and doubts the validity of the story, Miss Marple and Elspeth locate the area where the body was probably thrown from the train, the isolated manor house of an aged, cantankerous millionaire, Luther Crackenthorpe. Miss Marple's niece Lucy is recruited to apply for a job on the estate in hopes of locating the corpse. When she finds it in an ancient sarcophagus in an outbuilding housing Egyptian and Etruscan art treasures, the police and Miss Marple are brought in. Obviously someone in the large household is involved, but who?
When Miss Marple's visiting friend sees a woman being strangled on a passing train, they immediately report it to the police. Inspector Slack sees Miss Marple as a bit of a busy body and drops the investigation after only a few days. Miss Marple however determines that there is only one spot along the line where a body could have been dumped and it happens to be very near the Crackenthorpe estate. She asks a professional housekeeper, Lucy Eyelesbarrow, to go there undercover as a domestic. She soon finds the dead woman's body at which time the police take on a renewed interest but it is left to Miss Marple to solve the mystery.
