Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard—a connoisseur of literature and history—takes a night train to Scotland for vacation… In the morning, upon arriving at the station, he accidentally discovers the body of a young Frenchman, Charles Martin, in the neighboring compartment, and automatically picks up the newspaper the young man had been reading shortly before his death. The police don’t think it necessary to investigate the case, believing that the passenger died from natural causes, but Grant is sure the police are wrong. A poem about singing sands, which Charles Martin scribbled in the margins of the newspaper, won’t let him rest…