When a local man's corpse appears on a nearby hillside, no one is quite sure what happened to him. Many of the town's residents secretly wonder if they are responsible, including the man's ex-wife, Jennifer (Shirley MacLaine), and Capt. Albert Wiles (Edmund Gwenn), a retired seaman who was hunting in the woods where the body was found. As the no-nonsense sheriff (Royal Dano) gets involved and local artist Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe) offers his help, the community slowly unravels the mystery.