 Mona Dearly, a spiteful, loud-mouthed, unpopular woman dies when the car she is driving in plunges off a cliff and into a river near the small upstate New York town where she lives. Wyatt Rash, the local police chief, investivates and suspects foul play in Mona s death and tries to contain the whole town whom all are suspects who include Wyatt s daughter Ellen, who is going to marry landscape artist Bobby Calzone whose business was suffering from his lazy business partner, Jeff, Mona s slow-witted son, as well as waitress Rona Mace, who was having an affair with Mona s husband.