Plot

A struggling artist in a small town becomes the prime suspect when his wife mysteriously disappears.

John Hamilton leaves a comfortable New York job to take up as an artist in a quiet Connecticut town. His dipso wife hates the life and falsely makes him out to be selfish, unsuccessful, and, worst, someone who hits her. When she suddenly disappears suspicion falls on him and the townsfolk take the law into their own hands. Hamilton finds his only allies are the local children he has befriended.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Chucking in his corporate job as a graphic designer, John Hamilton, along with his wife Linda Hamilton, moved from New York City to small town Stoneville, Connecticut one year ago. The move was in part so that John could pursue his dream of being a painter, that dream which was not aided by a recent critically panned showing of his art in New York. Most of the adults in Stoneville dislike John thinking his art obscene, most who have come to this conclusion without having seen any of his paintings. The move was however more to get Linda out of the big city environment which they believe is in large part the cause of her alcoholism, this illness which they have managed to hide from their Stoneville "friends". Their wealthy social circle in Stoneville consists of Brad and Vickie Carey, Brad's controlling parents, and Gordon and Roz Moreland. While Linda, who yearns to move back to the city in feeling bored in Stoneville, finds this group her only connection to the big city life, John merely tolerates them. Who John considers his true friends in Stoneville are the group of children who routinely play down by the pond, where he often sketches. When John returns to Stoneville after a twenty-four hour trip to New York City to meet with his former boss who offers him his old job at twice the salary - he turning down the offer which an angry Linda is aware of - he finds that their house has been trashed, and Linda is gone, she having left him a typewritten note stating her intention to leave him for good. However, there are indications that Linda may have been murdered, the authorities believing John the murderer, in part due to being aware of the marital discord that existed between the two of them, most recently displayed at a social gathering at the Careys. John comes to believe that Linda has indeed been murdered and that the true murderer is trying to frame him. With the authorities ready to arrest and charge him and many of the townsfolk ready to lynch him, John has to elude his pursuers to find out if Linda was indeed murdered and if so who killed her and why. With so many people in town disliking him, he has to be careful in who he trusts, that small group which only includes Vickie, the one adult who has shown him true kindness, and that group of five children.—Huggo