12-year old dreamer Vlad likes telling fantastic stories about his courage to his summer camp friends, although he is a bit of a coward himself. But one day Vlad finds himself in a real adventure as he accidentally gets caught in a conflict between two alien forces. Shapeshifting Trashmen, descendants of an ancient alien civilization, try to disable electricity on the whole planet by deactivating the defensive shield that protects the Earth from an approaching solar wave. In this way they challenge the all-powerful and mysterious Energy that enabled humanity's technological progress and which we depend on more than ever. In this battle Vlad is helped by a transformer box called the Bobot, which holds the key to saving the world. While telling stories about fictional courage is easy, Vlad will find out that overcoming his fear in the real world is quite a challenge. Mankind's future lies solely in his hands.
Poirot pays what appears to be a routine visit to Dr. Morley, his dentist, but shortly after he leaves the clinic, the doctor is found dead with a gunshot wound to his temple, an apparent suicide. Poirot suspects foul play, and all those who entered the doctor's offices after Poirot left are suspect. They include Alaistair Blunt, a prominent and very influential bank director, Frank Carter, a young fascist thug with a personal grudge against Morley, Mr. Amberiotis, an enigmatic recent arrival from India suffering from a toothache, and Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale, a charity worker also recently returned from India. When Amberiotis is found dead in his hotel room from an overdose of Novocaine and Sainsbury-Seale disappears, Poirot rightly expands his list of suspects and connects the crime to events that occurred in India 12 years earlier.
When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her nursing home, Tuppence is concerned by the odd behavior of some staff and residents. So when Tuppence hears about Aunt Ada's sudden death and the disappearance of her friend Mrs Lancaster, she realizes her concerns were right. Tuppence meets Miss Marple and together they follow a path of clues that lead them to the Norfolk village of Farrell St Edmund, where they find a community guarding an array of secrets. Only by getting to the bottom of these secrets do they begin to unravel the truth about the mystery of Aunt Ada's death and Mrs Lancaster's disappearance.