A lavish weekend party, a practical joke that goes murderously wrong, and stolen state secrets all transpire in The Seven Dials Mystery, by Agatha Christie. Full of her usual sly wit this clever murder mystery is a classic detective story featuring some of the characters from an earlier novel, The Secret of Chimneys: Lady Eileen (Bundle) Brent, Lord Caterham, Bill Eversleigh, George Lomax, Tredwell, and Superintendent Battle.

Punting and pranks seem to top the agenda for the party at Chimneys, the historic estate of Lord Caterham which Sir Oswald and Lady Coote have rented for the season. Gerry Wade was a champion sleeper, famous for over-sleeping, so a group of his fellow young houseguests decide to play a practical joke on him by setting eight alarm clocks to go off in his room one after another very early the next morning. When morning arrives, a footman discovers that Gerry is dead and one clock is missing.

Despite the arrival of the police, the young friends—led by Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent and charming "man about town" Jimmy Thesiger, take the investigation into their own hands. When another victim turns up dead, and there are whispers of a secret society called the Seven Dials and talk of stolen state secrets, it all seems to point to a wider plot. Bundle and her friends risk their lives in order to find the murderer before he or she kills again.