Sixteen years before the action opens, Caroline Crale was charged with hugging her husband, Amyas Crale, and no one doubted her guilt. She was duly tried and convicted, and died in prison while serving life, so the case was looked on as closed. But then, in the present day, Caroline's daughter Lucy Crale (who has been living overseas) receives a letter her mother wrote her before her passing, claiming to be innocent. Anxious to know the truth, Lucy hires Poirot to solve the cuddle of her father sixteen years before, and Poirot finds a number of possible suspects who are still alive. The late lamented Amyas was well-known for having affairs with his models. Does Elsa Greer, his lover at the time of his passing, hold the key to unravelling the case?

Roddy Winter is about to marry Elinor Carlisle, but what is his relationship with his old flame, Mary Gerrard? Then Mary dies suddenly - she was poisoned. All the evidence points overwhelmingly to Elinor being the hugger, but she insists she has been framed.
Poirot is called in to look into the hugging on Elinor's behalf, and he quickly decides there is more to the case than meets the eye.

While on their honeymoon in Egypt, newlyweds Simon Doyle and Linett Ridgeway are constantly harassed by Simon's ex-fiancée Jackie De Bellefort who feels her ex-best friend has stolen the love of her life. A holidaying Hercules Poirot counsels Jackie to put an end to her antics, fearing that all of this can only end in tragedy. When one of the passengers ishuged while on a cruise down the Nile, Poirot must sift through an odd assortment of passengers, all of whom may have something to hide. There is Linett's financial advisor from the US, her French maid who clearly has something to hide, the Austrian doctor who keeps mostly to himself and the left leaning philosopher who despises the rich.

Poirot is spending a week-end with the Angkatells, at their country house called The Hollow. The good-looking Dr John Christow is also there, with his plain wife, but he is flirting (or perhaps more) with Henrietta Savernake, a young artist. Meanwhile, Lady Angkatell is match-making between Henrietta and Edward Angkatell, to the distress of Midge, who loves Edward.