Tom and Annabel are married and love each other very much. The play opens with them kissing passionately. But a mild disagreement begins when Tom says he loves Annabel more. Annabel disagrees - she loves Tom more. They each insist their own love is greater. Their argument turns physical and they thrash about, slugging each other and overturning furniture. Then one of them dies and the other one panics.

What follows is a mad cap parade of guests who enter the scene at their own peril: a rational police buddy, a sickly mother-in-law a critical literary agent , a crazed landlady , a suspicious police Inspector and an overly excitable nurse. By one comical means or another, several of these die too.

The ones left living scramble to hide the bodies, which decidedly don't want to be hidden, and try to fabricate a story that will "fly" in a court of law. The truth, "the unvarnished truth" will never do. Soon even the audience is not sure what really happened.