- After Poirot pays a routine visit to his dentist, the doctor apparently shoots himself to death a short time later. Chief Inspector Japp appropriately recruits the detective as both witness and consultant.
- Poirot pays what appears to be a routine visit to Dr. Morley, his dentist, but shortly after he leaves the clinic, the doctor is found dead with a gunshot wound to his temple, an apparent suicide. Poirot suspects foul play, and all those who entered the doctor's offices after Poirot left are suspect. They include Alaistair Blunt, a prominent and very influential bank director, Frank Carter, a young fascist thug with a personal grudge against Morley, Mr. Amberiotis, an enigmatic recent arrival from India suffering from a toothache, and Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale, a charity worker also recently returned from India. When Amberiotis is found dead in his hotel room from an overdose of Novocaine and Sainsbury-Seale disappears, Poirot rightly expands his list of suspects and connects the crime to events that occurred in India 12 years earlier.—G. Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)
- Hercule Poirot's dentist, Dr Morley, dies of a gunshot wound in his surgery. The police initially believe it is suicide, a belief strengthened when one of the patients Dr Morley treated that morning, Mr Amberiotis, dies later that same day from a Novocaine overdose. The police are concerned, however, that this all may in some way be a plot to kill Mr Alastair Blunt, an influential banker, who was a patient of Dr Morley and saw him that morning. Starting to suspect that it was murder, suspicion falls on Frank Carter, boyfriend of Dr Morley's assistant, as he and Dr Morley do not see eye-to-eye. Then another of Dr Morley's patients, Mabelle Sainsbury Seale, turns up dead.—grantss
- Mabelle and Gerda are actresses on a world tour in India when Gerda meets and falls in love with Blunt, and they are married. Blunt and Gerda return to London, and Blunt later decides to commit bigamy so he can marry into an influential banking family. Gerda agrees to this deception and takes on a new identity she calls Mrs. Albert Chapman, and she pulls it off well because she is an actress. Several months later Blunts new wife dies mysteriously and Blunt gains control of the family fortune and a major national bank. After the death, Blunt and Gerda decide not to pretend to marry because Gerda enjoys the intrigue and the acting opportunities it gives.
12 years later Mabelle returns to London. She has met Mr. Amberiotis on the return trip and tells him that she is going to visit Gerda, who is married to Blunt. Amberiotis knows that Blunt is not married to Gerda so he decides to blackmail Blount.
Poirot, Blunt, and Mabelle all have dental appointments the same morning with Dr Morley. Mabelle recommends Dr Morely to Amberiotis because of a toothache and he also sets an appointment the same morning. Mrs. Chapman (Gerta) also uses Dr. Morely as her dentist.
Gerda has written to Mabelle so Mabelle knows where to find her old friend, but the letter says that both Gerda and Mrs. Chapman are staying together in a London flat. When Mabelle shows up, she is killed by Gerta and her face is disfigured beyond recognition. Blount and Gerda decide that they must kill Dr. Morely whose dental records can show who the victim really is. Gerda impersonates Mabelle so she can take her dental appointment and meet Blunt there. Poirot meets Gerda just outside the dental office while she is impersonating Mabelle, but she breaks the buckle on her shoe as she is getting out of a car. The buckle is on a brand new shoe because Gerda has bought new shoes because she wears a different size shoe than Mabelle.
Blount has just finished his dental appointment when he shoots Dr Morley. Meanwhile Gerda switches the dental records for Mabelle and the Mrs. Chapman. Amberiotis comes in for his appointment and Blunt takes the opportunity to get rid of his blackmailer. Since Amberiotis has never met the dentist, Blount pretends to be the dentist so he can inject him with a deadly combination of Novocain and adrenaline. He dies several hours later, leaving the police to assume that Dr. Morely has committed suicide because he has mistakenly injected Amberiotis with a combination of drugs that will kill him.
As a precaution, Blunt and Gerda have hired Frank Carter to show up in the dental building so they have a scapegoat if things go wrong.
Poirot first realized there was a problem when he saw that the buckle on the shoe of the unidentified dead body, but it is on a well worn shoe rather than the new one he had seen earlier. He later decides to check marriage records and discovers the marriage of Blunt and Gerda prior to the marriage into the banking family.
They all retreat to Blounts country home where Gerda is now impersonating Blunts secretary and Carter has been hired as a groundskeeper. From behind some bushes Gerda fires a shot, throws the gun toward Carter and then accuses him of firing a shot at Blunt, again to implicate to Carter.
Poirot gathers everyone in the board room of Blounts bank, and explains the plot to kill anyone that learns that Blunt and Gerda have been married all along and Blunt just married into the banking family to gain access to the fortune. Blunt and Gerda admit their guilt but Blunt justifies the killings because he claims to have saved the British banking system, and people like Carter, Mabelle and the dentist are nothing on the world stage. Poirot responds that he more concerned with the rights of individuals to live their own lives than he is about the fate of banking systems and national economies.
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