 A young German, Dieter Lotschmeyer, arrives in Aidensfield to visit his father s grave, but he soon discovers that he is not all that popular in the village, because his father was a German bomber pilot during the war and dropped a bomb to lighten his plane before it crashed. The bomb hit a cottage which belonged to Jo Tyler and his family killing both him and his wife, and when the grave is vandalized Tyler s son is the prime suspect. Walter and Hilda Openshaw are on their annual hiking holiday in Aidensfield, but Walter would rather be on a voyage on the Orient Express. He and Greengrass decide to do something about it.