The story follows a performance of a murder mystery, where the ill-fated theatre company encounters numerous mishaps. Before the play starts the backstage staff is making last-minute adjustments to the set, including trying to mend a broken mantelpiece and find a dog that has run off.

 

During the performance, a plethora of disasters befalls the actors, including doors sticking, props falling from the walls and failing in numerous ways, and floors collapsing. Cast members fall down, are struck by set pieces, misplace and break props, forget lines, miss cues, break character, drink white spirit instead of whisky, mispronounce words, step on fingers, are hidden in a grandfather clock, and are manhandled off stage.

 

One cast member is knocked unconscious, and her replacement (the group's technician) refuses to yield when she returns. An
actor repeats an earlier line of dialogue, cuing the other actors to repeat the whole dialogue sequence, ever more frenetically, several times. In the climax, virtually the whole of the remaining set collapses. Physical comedy at its finest!