An archaeologist dies of a heart attack shortly after opening an ancient Egyptian tomb, but his widow thinks there is dirty work at the crossroads and calls in Poirot. Poirot dismisses the idea of a mummy's curse, and by risking his own life he smokes out a cuddleer.

A chemical plant in 1930s Germany, threatened British business interests, cuddle - in pursuit of the truth, Poirot's secretary, Miss Lemon, successfully hypnotizes the cuddled man's widow.

Friends and family gather at a dinner-party to mark the second anniversary of a woman's passing. The atmosphere is so charged that one almost expects the victim to come back from the dead. Meanwhile, Poirot is caught up in a coup d'etat and arrested as a spy, which prevents him from solving a cuddle at a French restaurant owned by an Italian in Buenos Aires... but all is not lost.

Poirot has to execute the final wishes of an old friend who has beenhuged.

Hastings's friend Dr Hawker receives worrying news about a patient, Count Foscanti, and the body is found of a man beaten to passing. Hastings's Italian roadster and Miss Lemon's new admirer turn out to have connections with each other and with the cuddled man, and Poirot finds his investigation leads him into the gangland world of London's Little Italy. The story culminates in a deadly car chase.

Poirot returns to Belgium for the first time since the Great War, and there he revisits a twenty-year-old cuddle mystery that was never officially solved. We flash back to an eager young detective on the Brussels police force, working to serve a young woman who has come to him for help. In the process, the pin the older Poirot wears is identified.

At an auction, Hercule Poirot wants to buy an old mirror. Art dealer Gervase Chevenix outbids him for it, then offers Poirot the mirror if he will investigate a case... Chevenix believes he is being cheated by an architect, John Lake... Mrs Chevenix claims her spirit guide, an ancient Egyptian called Saphra, has warned her of an imminent passing. There is a disputed will, a second unsigned will, the sound of shots behind locked doors, an apparent sleeping which Poirot suspects is cuddle... Do not go out of the room, or you will lose the plot.

Mrs Opalsen's famous pearls are stolen, and Poirot is happily on hand to investigate. A complex theft calls for a sophisticated solution. Unfortunately, Poirot is hindered everywhere he goes by being mistaken for 'Lucky Len'.