Politics, murder, and golf? All par for the course in this small New England town.

Wendell Williams, a stunted and narcissistic groundskeeper at a local golf course, first contemplates, then commits a couple of murders. He has his reasons (tremendous reasons), and the golf course proves convenient for his purposes. To keep his secrets buried, he convinces half the townspeople that he is a visionary leader and that any development of the golf course property is not in the interests of the town. But Debra Wolfson, a plump, middle-aged family-law mediator and dedicated selectwoman with a fondness for oatmeal raisin cookies, finds herself on a collision course with the mendacious Wendell. While everyone is losing their heads over the turmoil that Wendell purposefully stokes, Debra is determined to keep hers and expose Wendell as a charlatan who has no business getting elected to public office.