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 travelling, she uncovers a fair number of killers as well.
A letter from an old friend brings Jessica to a luxury island hotel, where she arrives just in time to investigate the sender's murder.
Tempers flare in Cabot Cove over the planned construction of a hotel, and a tycoon with many enemies is found dead on the building site of his high-rise hotel.
Jessica's niece, who acts in a soap opera, comes under suspicion when an onscreen 'victim' is discovered to really be dead.
Jessica is about to receive a special award at Grenshaw College when she finds the proceedings interrupted by a murder.
Jessica rushes to London in an attempt to aid her cousin, a famous actress in the theatre who has become the target of several murder attempts.
When a phone call from a woman's supposedly dead first husband precedes a fatal incident, Jessica must unravel the truth from hysteria to find a killer.
At a lakeside inn Jessica witnesses what appears to be a struggle and a woman falling into the lake.
Jessica has the difficult task of proving that her niece was framed for the murder of a horse-breeder.
Jessica agrees to give a series of lectures in creative writing at a women's prison. When the prison doctor is murdered, mayhem ensues.
After Beverly Gareth is electrocuted in her bath, Cabot Cove is flooded with poison pen letters. Jessica hosts a visiting travel writer. (S2 Ep10)
Jessica unearths a suspicious death in the desert during an excavation of a Native American site where gold is discovered. (S2 Ep11)
Behind the facade of a family make-up firm lurks jealousy and rage, as Jessica discovers when she runs into a former student. (S2 Ep12)
When Jessica is called for jury service, she finds herself with the arduous task of unravelling a double murder. (S2 Ep13)
When a number of guests become ill following breakfast at the popular Joshua Peabody Inn, Jessica suspects foul play. (S2 Ep14)