When a young secretary, Sheila Webb, is sent to the home of a blind woman on an errand, she is horrified to discover a dead man behind the couch, surrounded by four clocks that have all been stopped at 4:13. The owner arrives home and denies that the clocks belong to her, the deceaseds business card turns out to be a fraud, and a woman shows up claiming to be the dead mans wife. There is only one man who can unravel this complicated case: Hercule Poirot.