Archie Miles is a PI in Boston who is doing some research on an old murder case which will form the basis of Jessica Fletcher's next mystery novel.
Only Archie is found dead, just after he phoned Jessica with a new lead to follow up.
She travels up to Boston and also meets Archie's PI partner Harry McGraw (Jerry Orbach.)
It might just be that something Archie discovered lead to his death or it might be linked with other cases the firm were investigating.
Harry is beaten up by Ernie Santini (Alex Rocco.) A hot tempered Italian American local construction boss, he is tired being tailed by Harry and his guys. Not realising that Ernie's wife hired the firm as she thinks that he might be cheating on her.
The other case concerned magazine publishing executive Priscilla Daniels (Barbara Babcock) who has aspiration to run for political office. It might be Archie dug up some dirt about her past.
There is a light hearted tone to the story even though poor Harry gets worked over a few times by Ernie Santini, who has a very innocent explanation for his nocturnal activities.
It probably was easy to figure out who the culprit might be, even though their motives was unclear.
Orbach would return several times as Harry McGraw.