Elwood, played by Eddie Bracken, is a mild-mannered, somewhat dimwitted young man who works in a small-town hardware store and lives a quiet, lonely life. He’s polite, shy, and not very bright — but he’s always cheerful. Elwood has one passion: murder mysteries, especially the ones he hears on the radio.

One day, he tells his co-worker and friend Marion (Cathy Lewis) that he’s been writing a mystery story of his own. He’s excited — almost too excited — about how realistic it feels. He goes into great detail about the plot: a man murders his employer, buries the body in the basement, and cleverly avoids suspicion by playing the innocent fool.