 Although Miss Marple wants only to bask quietly at a West Indian resort, she is badgered with boring reminiscences by an overly talkative ex-soldier and policeman, Major Palgrave. Although he claims to possess a picture of a murderer, Miss Marple is more interested in her omnipresent knitting than his long-winded stories. After the hard-drinking Major dies that night of an apparent heart attack, the maid tells her that the blood pressure medication found in his room belongs to another guest. When she later learns that the incriminating picture is missing and the maid is found stabbed to death, Miss Marple correctly predicts that more murders will follow.