A village is plagued by a spate of seemingly accidental deaths, but Miss Marple is convinced a more sinister hand is involved when a villager on her way to Scotland Yard is conveniently dispatched.
The lives of six girls belong to different worlds although connected to each other through a doll called Molly, whose existence dates back to 1976, when she appeared among the rubble of the great fire of the San Carlos orphanage, in northern Spain.