Extremely unusual live theater disaster. The town's Mayor-Manager plays a leading role in the new play: Not Exactly My Dear. His on stage homicide designed to look as a scripted suicide sends a recently retired 8th grade teacher on a new venture; to find the killer and bring him/her to justice. The intricacies of local folks' relationships is exposed revealing their ambitions and character faults. It's a study in real character, demonstrating the desires, hidden and otherwise among the townspeople. A second killing, that of the Town Manager's personal secretary further confounds the populace. All is not well in the culmination of final thoughts and suspicions, some of which remain with the reader.