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The mirror crack'd from side to side - Agatha Christie

Sometime after Colonel Arthur Bantry dies of pneumonia, his wife moves into a cottage on the estate grounds and sells Gossington Hall to film star Marina Gregg, who takes up residence with her husband Jason Rudd. At a fête hosted by Marina, St John Ambulance helper Heather Badcock drinks a daiquiri and subsequently dies. The coroner reveals Heather died as a result of ingesting four grains of the antidepressant Calmo, a quantity six times the recommended dose.

Shortly before her death, Heather was in conversation with Marina, giving her a long, boring account of how she had met Marina many years ago in Bermuda, getting out of bed despite her illness and putting on lots of makeup, to seek Marina's autograph.

Marina is seen with a "frozen" look on her face for a moment while Heather talks to her; it is a look likened to the Lady of Shalott, as though "doom has come upon her."

It then comes to light that Marina had handed her own drink to Heather after Heather's was spilled. Therefore, it is surmised that Marina must be the intended victim. As a famous star who has married five times, she is a far more likely murder target. Suspicion is cast on many people, including Marina's seemingly devoted husband, a big-shot American TV producer who is a former admirer and an American actress who was previously Marina's rival in love (both Americans turn up unexpectedly at the party). A photographer at the party is actually one of three children Marina had adopted in the past for a while and then "got tired of" (Marina does not recognise her as such at the party).

Many years before, Marina desperately wanted children of her own but had difficulties conceiving. After adopting three children (Margot, Angus and Rod), she became pregnant but her baby, Bobby, was born mentally disabled and abandoned to a lifetime of institutions, leaving Marina emotionally scarred. This misfortune was due to Marina contracting German measles in the early stages of her pregnancy.

While police search for clues, two other murders take place – one of Jason's secretary and the other of Marina's butler (both of whom were serving drinks at the party). Jason's secretary, Ella Zielinsky is found murdered by cyanide poisoning, with the poison being administered by means of the atomiser she needed to use frequently for her attacks of hay fever. Marina's Italian butler, Giuseppe, goes to London and deposits £500 into his bank account. He returns to Gossington Hall in a very good mood where he is shot in the back and dies instantly.

Miss Marple finally deduces what Marina had instantly realised at the party, that Heather is the woman who was responsible for infecting Marina with German measles all those years previously when she put on makeup to cover the rash and approached Marina for her autograph. Overcome by rage and grief at seeing her unwitting tormentor looking so happy and proud of her act, Marina impulsively poisons her own glass and hands it to Heather after making Heather spill her own drink. Giuseppe and possibly Ella had seen this; Giuseppe blackmailed her, and both he and Ella died because of the threat they presented.

At the end of the book, Marina dies peacefully in her sleep after having taken an overdose of Calmo; it is not stated whether her death was an accident, suicide or possibly "assisted suicide" as hinted at by Miss Marple.