It's not healthy to be unloveable in Burrywood, Washington. Unsavory citizens begin dying one by one, victims of an assassin. On Monday Diana Sackett, editor of The Burrywood Banner, finds devious mayor Neal Thomas battered to death. On Tuesday she discovers drunkard Tolliver Jackson poisoned in her backyard. And Wednesday, obnoxious Judd Bishop is found dead at the town mansion.

With the help of Winona, owner of The Clamshack diner; Annie, the town's one homeless person; confused, eighty-year-old Reverend Amos; twelve-year-old Ivy; and an assortment of other characters, Diana finally puts it all together. Not, however, before they are all nearly killed in one lethal trap.