Setting the Stage for Murder tells the story of a brutal murder that cuts short a plan to bring opera to the shores of Crooked Lake. On the day of the dress rehearsal, the leading man is found strangled to death on stage. In true operatic fashion, the cast is a veritable hothouse of passions. Several members of the cast have a motive for murder, and no one has an iron-clad alibi. A vacationing professor of music who had been directing the ill-fated opera joins forces with the local sheriff to bring the killer to justice.