Eight people of different social classes have been invited to a mansion on the fictional Soldier(Indian) Island ( Nigger Island in the original 1939 UK publication, Indian Island in the 1964 US publication), which is based upon Burgh Island off the coast of Devon. Upon arriving, they are told that their hosts, a Mr. and Mrs. U.N. Owen (Ulick Norman Owen and Una Nancy Owen ), are currently away, but that the guests will be attended to by Thomas and Ethel Rogers. Each guest finds in his or her room an odd bit of bric-a-brac and a framed copy of the nursery rhyme Ten Little Soldiers ( Niggers or Indians in respective earlier editions) hanging on the wall. Before dinner that evening, the guests tice ten soldier boy figurines on the dining room table. During the meal, a gramophone record plays, accusing each of the ten of murder. Each guest ackwledges an awareness of (and, in some cases, involvement with) the deaths of the persons mentioned, but denies either malice and/or legal culpability. The guests realize they have been tricked into coming to the island, but find that they cant leave: the boat which regularly delivers supplies has stopped arriving. They are murdered one by one, each murder paralleling a verse of the nursery rhyme, with one of the ten figurines being removed after each murder.