Community of good neighbours, good manners, and murder.

Take a walk through a small town deep in the cornbelt of rural southwestern Ontario, where farming is king, and everyone that's anyone attends monthly meetings of the Institute, drives a tractor, and can tell you the exact year when June was a drier month than it is now.

This is Plattsford, a fictitious town with an imaginary newspaper, an almost-real police force, and a cast of suspicious, xenophobic inhabitants who like nothing better than a good gossip.

Gloria Trevisi, recently appointed editor of the town's newspaper, is finding out that newsgathering in this rural backwater requires more than attendingcouncil meetings and snapping photographs.

What really happens in this tight little community? Listen to the morning conversations at the counter in Bud's Café.

Spend twenty minutes getting a haircut, and throw a few pointed questions in the direction of Sid Stanton, the town's most popular barber.