- With a 1926 dinner party turning into a murder mystery, The Doctor and Donna Noble get the chance to meet Agatha Christie on the eve of her well-known 9-days disappearance.
- The Doctor and Donna arrive at an English country estate in the 1920s and meet none other than the renowned murder mystery writer Agatha Christie. The Doctor also realizes the importance of the date - it's the day when Christie famously disappeared for 10 days creating headlines across the country and around the world. History records that she reappeared 10 days later claiming to have no memory of where she has been or what she has done. They no sooner arrive than there is a murder, which Donna can't help but find it amusing since the victim is Professor Peach who was killed in the library with a lead pipe. In true Agatha Christie's fashion, the solution to the murder and Agatha's disappearance is found in a false identity and events that occurred long ago.—garykmcd
- Professor Peach is killed in the library with the lead pipe.
The Doctor and Donna crash a party at the Lady Eddison's country house in 1920's England, where Agatha Christie is a special guest. The Doctor realizes it is the exact day that Christie disappears without explanation.
Professor Peach's body is discovered, and the Doctor claims to be from Scotland Yard when he notices alien residues at the scene. He assumes the murderer is an alien masquerading as a human. The victim's watch had stopped at 4:15.
The doctor questions all the guests, including Robina Redmond, Roger Curbishley, the Reverend Golightly, and Colonel Hugh, but they all have alibis for that time. Christie suggests looking for a motive, and reveals a piece of paper she has saved from the fire with the word "maiden" on it.
Donna examines a locked room that has been kept pristine for many years, but a giant wasp breaks in through the window and attacks her as she investigates.
The cook realizes she has a clue and goes to see Lady Eddison, but before she can reveal her secret a gargoyle is pushed off the roof and kills her, her last words being "the poor little child". The wasp is not far behind, but after being shown Donna's magnifying glass flies away, and presumably resumes human guise.
Donna goes to talk to Christie. Christie notices a case of tools thrown in the bushes and they take it to the doctor, but as they discuss it the Doctor is poisoned by cyanide in his drink. Luckily his physiology is alien enough to resist the chemical with the help of protein and some shock treatment from Donna.
At dinner, as a storm rages, the Doctor reveals that he has heavily peppered the soup and that the pepper is an insecticide. The lights go out, the wasp flies away, and Roger Curbishley is stabbed and a valuable necklace known as the Firestone is stolen.
The Doctor gathers the suspects in the drawing room and turns the floor over to Christie. She explains that Robina Redmond is actually a master thief known as the Unicorn, and threw her thieve's tools out the window in a panic. She admits the theft and returns the Firestone to Lady Eddison. Christie reveals that Lady Eddison brought the Firestone back from India, and had hidden in the locked room to give birth forty years ago, after being impregnated by an alien in human form. The alien had been drowned in India, but had given her the Firestone. The baby was taken to an orphanage but Professor Peach had ferreted out the secret.
The Doctor then notes that the whole scenario is like a mystery novel. He questions the Reverend concerning a recent break-in at his church. When the Reverend says he had apprehended the miscreants, the Doctor suggests that his anger had broken a genetic lock and allowed him to assume his true form. He was Lady Eddison's child, and the Firestone is a telepathic recorder that had simultaneously returned his true identity to him, and accidentally pushed a Christie novel into his brain.
The vicar transforms into a wasp and Christie vows to find a way to stop it since her imagination had created it. She drives away leading it on a chase, with the Doctor and Donna close behind.
At the lake, Christie creates a link between herself and the wasp using the Firestone, such that if she dies, it dies too. Donna grabs the Firestone and throws it in the lake, and the wasp chases it in and drowns. The alien partially releases the link before dying, but Christie suffers amnesia, and the Doctor transports her via Tardis to a hotel in Harrogate to recover, leaving her car by the lake.
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