

Poirot is actually part of the same tour and was at Qumran with the Boyntons. Evens at Qumran take place much as at Petra in the original.The important scene of Mrs Boynton talking past Sarah King and saying she never forgets a face is faithfully portrayed.There is a sideplot of Miss Quinton and Jefferson heading for Qumran immediately after disembarking from the ship at Jaffa, and then they are reported as having disappeared.


Poirot overhears Raymond and Carole plotting to kill Mrs Boynton but this is on the ship to Jaffa and not in the hotel.He punches Cope in the face, making him spill the poisoned drink. This fails because Lennox discovers a gift from Cope to Nadine. Because Cope is a threat to Mrs Boynton, she makes a failed attempt to poison him while on the ship from Trieste to Jaffa.In this adaptation, Cope has an affair with Nadine which is conducted fairly openly. Most of the key events will later take place in Qumran and Jerusalem and not in Petra and Amman. After reading the will, Mrs Boynton takes the children on a surprise trip through Europe and the Holy Land.Mrs Boynton objected to this and persuaded Jefferson Cope (who is in this adaptation the family lawyer) to burn this will, reverting to the first will which left a life interest to Mrs Boynton and then distributed to the children only after her death. There is a prologue involving Elmer Boynton having made a second will leaving his money divided between Mrs Boynton and the children.The adaptation is fairly faithful to the original with the addition of a few sideplots and changes in characters.
