When an evening of fun and games turns to murder, Miss Marple plays by her own rules to solve the whodunit.

Agatha Christie's ginius for detective fiction is unparalleled. Her worldwide popularity is phenomenal, her characters engaging, her plots spellbinding. No one knows the human heart--or the dark passions that can stop it--better than Agatha Christie. She is truly the one and only Queen of Crime. The Muder Of Roger Ackroyd Village rumor hints that Mrs. Ferrars poisoned her husband, but no one is sure. Then there's another victim in a chain of death. Unfortunately for the killer, master sleuth Hercule Poirot takes over the investigation.

Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. One of his fellow passengers must be the murderer. Isolated by the storm and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer amongst a dozen of the dead man's enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again...

哈佛大学的符号学专家罗伯特·兰登在法国巴黎出差期间的一个午夜接到一个紧急电话，得知卢浮宫博物馆年迈的馆长被人杀害在卢浮宫的博物馆里，人们在他的尸体旁边发现了一个难以捉摸的密码。兰登与法国一位颇有天分的密码破译专家索菲·奈芙，在对一大堆怪异的密码进行整理的过程当中，发现一连串的线索就隐藏在达芬奇的艺术作品当中，深感震惊。这些线索，大家都清楚可见，然而却被画家巧妙地隐藏起来。兰登无意之中非常震惊地发现，已故的博物馆馆长是峋山隐修会（Priory of sion）的成员--这是一个真实存在的秘密组织，其成员包括艾撒克・牛顿爵士、波提切利、维克多·雨果与达芬奇，这无疑给他们增加了风险。兰登感觉到他们是在找寻一个石破天惊的历史秘密，这是个数世纪以来就证明了的既能给人启迪又很危险的秘密。在这场足迹遍及巴黎以及伦敦的追逐中，兰登与奈芙发现他们在跟一位始终不露面的幕后操纵者斗智斗勇。他们必须解开这个错综复杂的谜团，否则，峋山隐修会掩盖的秘密，那隐藏了多年的令人震惊的古老真相，将永远消逝在历史的尘埃之中。