
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.

A film based on Jessica's book opens at a film festival in Milan, and the opening is followed by the murder of the film's producer (Susan Blakely).

One of Jessica's former students is murdered when he returns to Cabot Cove to write a book exposing new information on a 30-year-old town scandal.

Officials hesitate to confront Jessica's kidnapper (Ken Howard), a philanthropist who mistook her for a government informant.

Jessica consoles a playwright (Darren McGavin) after his wife's suicide, then realizes that he was the intended victim of a family member's murder.