In 1940, Edna Ferber decides to live out a life-long dream: to act in a play. She travels to Maplewood, New Jersey, to star in "The Royal Family," the play she wrote with George S. Kaufman, but things turn deadly when one of the understudies is found murdered. Edna begins to investigate and discovers that all the members of the cast have a connection to the dead man, leading to many possible motives. Also, the cast all harbor secrets from their days in Hollywood, and Edna must sort through the facts to unmask the killer.