English tourist Iris Henderson and her friends Blanche and Julie are in the fictional European country of Bandrika. Iris is returning home to get married, but an avalanche has blocked the railway line. The stranded passengers are forced to spend the night at a hotel. In the same predicament are Charters and Caldicott, English cricket enthusiasts anxious to see the last days of the Test match in Manchester, and Miss Froy, a governess and music teacher who is returning home to England. Miss Froy listens to a folk singer in the street; he is strangled to death by an unseen murderer.