
Mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher - a down-to-earth, middle-aged widow - ferrets out the criminals in idyllic Cabot Cove, Maine, which apparently is the murder capital of the United States for the show's 12-season run. Though while traveling, she uncovers a fair number of killers as well.

Jessica comes to the aid of a small-town diner's owner (Dee Wallace Stone), who becomes an outcast when she is blamed for three arsenic poisoning deaths.

A writer is murdered after sending Jessica a manuscript exposing a kidnapping scam, and Jessica's friend, private investigator Harry McGraw (Jerry Orbach) is caught near the body.

Jessica takes a teaching position in New York, gets an apartment and finds its previous tenant murdered.

Insurance investigator Dennis Stanton becomes involved in a murder case while delving into the disappearance of a shy ventriloquist's (Grant Shaud) dummy.