Who murdered the handsome young actor? And why In 1940, against the chilling backdrop of Hitler's rise and the specter of another world war, Edna Ferber decides to follow an old dream: to act onstage. Starring in The Royal Family, the comedy she wrote with George S. Kaufman, she travels to Maplewood, New Jersey, for a week of summer stock. But her escape from the troubling daily headlines is short lived. Before opening night, a mysterious understudy is shot to death, and his murder opens up a world of lies, greed, and hypocrisy. With George Kaufman as the director of the production, the two begin a different kind of collaboration: the discovery of the murderer. As rehearsals evolve, they deal with a cast of characters who are all hiding something from their pasts, particularly days spent in Hollywood: a stage manager, a young ingénue, an American Nazi and his boisterous girlfriend, a stagehand named Dakota who is the son of a famous evangelist, his charismatic preacher-mother, her money-bags husband, and a driven acolyte of the church. Each character, Edna discovers, has some connection with the dead man, Quiet Maplewood in the summer of 1940-and all these characters maneuvered to be there. As Edna investigates, she realizes that the answer to the murder lies in what happened in Hollywood. As George wisecracks his way through the story, Edna methodically examines the facts, determined to find the answer. Opening night looms-so does World War Two. Edna, resolute, believes that justice needs to prevail in a world that is falling apart.