Hercule Poirot had no love for Henry Morley. For Morley was the man Poirot feared more than any other on earth - his dentist.

But now Morley was dead, a bullet in his skull. And now it was not Poirot's tooth but his brain that was aching as he searched for the killer of this man it was so easy to hate - and discovered how short a step it was from a dentist's peaceful waiting room to a secret maze of international intrigue and evil where the screams came not from patients from victims...