Doug Arnold finds wife, Christine, dead of a shotgun wound, their baby girl asleep in her crib. Sheriff Phil Norman questions Arnold, the landlord and nearby neighbors, Fred and Betty Nelson. The landlord is cleared and Arnold's alibi is afternoon adultery. The one substantial clue, unidentifiable finger prints, will take time to identify. Chief Deputy Allan Bollmeyer asks Sally Olson for a date. When he goes to pick her up his calm polite manner infuriates her quarrelsome inebriated mother. Christine Arnold's mother and sharp-tongued sister give the sheriff and his deputy a bit of trouble. Herb Zimmer, DMV, lied to about Cathy Altus's true age, avoids her like the plague. The sheriff meets Rebecca Archer when her car stalls and offers her a ride home. Later, a slightly inebriated Rebecca tours his house, borrows his hankie after vomiting up several birthday drinks, and then states that the spacious living room needs a fireplace. Phil sends a belated birthday present to Rebecca's place of employment. Miffed at the uproar it causes, she washes and perfumes his hankie and sends it to his workplace. Breaking up with his social-climbing girlfriend, Phil stops at a country dancehall, dances with Rebecca and soon asks for a date. She sets up an appointment with her psychiatrist. Al goes to pick Sally up from work, confronts her lecherous boss and proposes marriage out in the parking lot. The following week they drive to Iowa and marry in the Little Brown Church. The intimacy of dining with Phil upsets Rebecca. She goes to a policeman's banquet with him where she fights off a terrifying panic attack. Invited to his apartment for dinner, she suffers through another episode. When Herb and Cathy finally get together it's nothing less than a disaster. Coasting downhill, to the Altus Nursery to make amends, Herb's bike brakes fail. He slams into Cathy's parked car. An ambulance is called. Phil asks Fred Nelson's employer for Fred's fingerprints and then buys