No one in the quiet little town of Verplanck, New York seems to blink when one of its best-known and least-liked residents, Mona Dearly (Bette Midler), drives her Yugo into the Hudson to her death. Bound by duty to investigate, Police Chief Wyatt Rash (Danny DeVito) soon discovers it wasn't an accident. But the chief gets precious little help from the citizenry, as Mona was not one of Verplanck's favorite citizens. Career waitress Rona (Jamie Lee Curtis) didn't have a problem seducing both Mona's husband Phil (William Fichtner) and son Jeff (Marcus Thomas), and Mona made life miserable for Jeff's business partner Bobby (Casey Affleck) and his fiancée (Neve Campbell). When Chief Rash asks "Who would like to see Mona Dearly dead?" the same answer keeps coming back, who wouldn't?