Geïnspireerd door het gezegde "Olifanten vergeten niet" slaagt Hercule Poirot erin een groot aantal feiten te achterhalen, waardoor duidelijk wordt op welke wijze twintig jaar tevoren een echtpaar om het leven kwam.
Halley's Comet night at Winterscombe in 1910 ends with a violent death which throws a giant shadow over three generations of the Cavendish dynasty. At the centre of events is the beautiful and dangerous Constance, who casts a spell - which may be a curse - on all the sons of the family. Following the destruction of two World Wars - and the passions, deceits and hatreds of the intervening peace - it is the coruscating power of Constance's personality, and the sinister secret at the heart of her life, which will determine if Victoria, last of the Cavendishes, is to inherit happiness or misery.
April, 1945. As the Americans storm the Buchenwald concentration camp, among the survivors are Jakob and Emmanuelle, barely more than teenagers. Each of them has lost everything and everyone in the unspeakable horrors of the war. But when they meet, they find hope and comfort in each other. Jakob and Emmanuelle marry, and resolve to make a new life in New York. The Steins build a happy, prosperous life for themselves and their new family, but their pasts cast a long shadow over the present. Years later, as the sixties are in full swing, their son Max is an ambitious, savvy businessman, determined to throw off the sadness that has hung over his family since his birth. But as Max's life unfolds, he must learn that there is meaning in his heritage that will help shape his future.
De moord op een veelbesproken dienstbode brengt op een Engels landgoed de gemoederen in beroering.
verklaring van de geheimzinnige wisselwerking tussen hersenen en geest