Kate Dempsey (Bairbre Dowling) and husband, Tom Dempsey (Rod Taylor), operate an inn in Kilcleer, County Cork, complete with lodge and fishery.
While they treat their guests and neighbors extra-hospitably, Kate expresses very little patience when she perceives the slightest hint of inefficiency on the part of her domestic employees, Brigid Ahearn (Eleanor Comegys) and Shauna (Felicia Lansbury).
Dennis McSorley (Ross Kettle) and Brigid express romantic interest in each other and plan for the day when they may afford to marry, what with baby on its way and everything, but Tom Dempsey, who considers Dennis a son to him and Kate, loses patience with Dennis on occasion.
Councilman Harold Early (James Lancaster) and Walter Ickes (Lyman Ward) have been attempting to bribe Dennis to influence him to convince Tom to mine his fishery lands for gold. Walter Ickes had been involved in a strip mining operation in Colorado, which has destroyed a large parcel of land, and Tom wants no part of this in Ireland, especially when a corrupt elected official is concerned. And so, Harold and Walter attempt to sway Dennis, which ires Tom further.
Laura Maples (Amanda Wyss) accompanies Freddie Layton (Kent Williams) from New York City to the Dempsey Inn, she anticipating his proposal of marriage, he discovering from an American newspaper that false charges have been issued for his arrest on the grounds of embezzlement.
Nellie Ruddy (Carolyn Seymour) and Cyril Ruddy / Edward Montgomery (Martin Jarvis) also lodge at Dempsey Inn, as Bohemian types who enjoy lounging and fishing, or at least she enjoys lounging, while he's out fishing.
Edward Pryce (Francis Guinan) also vacations at the Inn, presenting himself as an English teacher-turned-Botonist, who has written a volume entitled "Legends of Kilcleer."
It is into this hospitable haven that Kate Dempsey welcomes her dear old friend Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) to spend a week's vacation of rest and relaxation at her Kilcleer lodge.
Tom Dempsey extends to Jessica a tour of the land, where they visit the ruins of the old garrison destroyed at the turn of the Seventeenth Century, as well as a wishing well, into which they toss pennies. Along the drive, they notice "bearded man," whom Tom suspects acts as a silent consortium spy for the mining operation which proposes to strip the land.
Shamus Riley (Gerry Gibson), who has dealings with Dempsey Inn, later reports to Tom after observing Dennis McSorley at a local pub with Harold Early and Walter Ickes.
Jessica has breakfast at the lodge the next morning, sharing the table with Kate, Tom, Laura, Freddie, Nellie, Cyril and Edward, with Brigid and Shauna's serving. Tom discusses fly fishing with Cyril, while the others make other plans for the day.
After Freddie disappears from Laura, Laura spends the afternoon photographing the landscape, and Jessica introduces Laura to the wishing well, at which her penny does not ping into the water as Jessica and Tom's have the day before. Plus, the brakes fail upon a driver's automobile, causing the vehicle to sway onto a hillside and beyond.
Sergeant Terence Boyle (Mark Rolston), the only character to repeat his role from "A Killing in Cork (#10.07)," arrives to Tom's disdain (as Tom has no use for Terance although Jessica respects him from her last visit to Kilcleer), to investigate the vehicular attempted murder, in addition to the missing person report, whom Jessica figures must have been murdered by a blunt object and hidden inside the wishing well, once she studies Laura's photographs and realizes that her penny did not ping.
So now, once they drain the well and somehow identify fingerprints upon rocks collected across a field, and jump to a conclusion differing from Jessica's, Jessica has her hands full, attempting to locate another hidden clue, which springs to a sudden realization when she observes Kate's straightening a frame, as Jessica attempts to unmask the perpetrator, and to champion young love for two sets of forlorn couples amid "Another Killing in Cork."
This episode marks the first of two "MSW" guest roles for Martin Jarvis, the second of two each for Francis Guinan and James Lancaster, the first of three each for Ross Kettle and Rod Taylor, the third of three each for Carolyn Seymour and Lyman Ward, the fourth of four for Mark Rolston (and his second as Sergeant Terence Boyle), and the third of five "MSW's" for Felicia Lansbury.
While they treat their guests and neighbors extra-hospitably, Kate expresses very little patience when she perceives the slightest hint of inefficiency on the part of her domestic employees, Brigid Ahearn (Eleanor Comegys) and Shauna (Felicia Lansbury).
Dennis McSorley (Ross Kettle) and Brigid express romantic interest in each other and plan for the day when they may afford to marry, what with baby on its way and everything, but Tom Dempsey, who considers Dennis a son to him and Kate, loses patience with Dennis on occasion.
Councilman Harold Early (James Lancaster) and Walter Ickes (Lyman Ward) have been attempting to bribe Dennis to influence him to convince Tom to mine his fishery lands for gold. Walter Ickes had been involved in a strip mining operation in Colorado, which has destroyed a large parcel of land, and Tom wants no part of this in Ireland, especially when a corrupt elected official is concerned. And so, Harold and Walter attempt to sway Dennis, which ires Tom further.
Laura Maples (Amanda Wyss) accompanies Freddie Layton (Kent Williams) from New York City to the Dempsey Inn, she anticipating his proposal of marriage, he discovering from an American newspaper that false charges have been issued for his arrest on the grounds of embezzlement.
Nellie Ruddy (Carolyn Seymour) and Cyril Ruddy / Edward Montgomery (Martin Jarvis) also lodge at Dempsey Inn, as Bohemian types who enjoy lounging and fishing, or at least she enjoys lounging, while he's out fishing.
Edward Pryce (Francis Guinan) also vacations at the Inn, presenting himself as an English teacher-turned-Botonist, who has written a volume entitled "Legends of Kilcleer."
It is into this hospitable haven that Kate Dempsey welcomes her dear old friend Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) to spend a week's vacation of rest and relaxation at her Kilcleer lodge.
Tom Dempsey extends to Jessica a tour of the land, where they visit the ruins of the old garrison destroyed at the turn of the Seventeenth Century, as well as a wishing well, into which they toss pennies. Along the drive, they notice "bearded man," whom Tom suspects acts as a silent consortium spy for the mining operation which proposes to strip the land.
Shamus Riley (Gerry Gibson), who has dealings with Dempsey Inn, later reports to Tom after observing Dennis McSorley at a local pub with Harold Early and Walter Ickes.
Jessica has breakfast at the lodge the next morning, sharing the table with Kate, Tom, Laura, Freddie, Nellie, Cyril and Edward, with Brigid and Shauna's serving. Tom discusses fly fishing with Cyril, while the others make other plans for the day.
After Freddie disappears from Laura, Laura spends the afternoon photographing the landscape, and Jessica introduces Laura to the wishing well, at which her penny does not ping into the water as Jessica and Tom's have the day before. Plus, the brakes fail upon a driver's automobile, causing the vehicle to sway onto a hillside and beyond.
Sergeant Terence Boyle (Mark Rolston), the only character to repeat his role from "A Killing in Cork (#10.07)," arrives to Tom's disdain (as Tom has no use for Terance although Jessica respects him from her last visit to Kilcleer), to investigate the vehicular attempted murder, in addition to the missing person report, whom Jessica figures must have been murdered by a blunt object and hidden inside the wishing well, once she studies Laura's photographs and realizes that her penny did not ping.
So now, once they drain the well and somehow identify fingerprints upon rocks collected across a field, and jump to a conclusion differing from Jessica's, Jessica has her hands full, attempting to locate another hidden clue, which springs to a sudden realization when she observes Kate's straightening a frame, as Jessica attempts to unmask the perpetrator, and to champion young love for two sets of forlorn couples amid "Another Killing in Cork."
This episode marks the first of two "MSW" guest roles for Martin Jarvis, the second of two each for Francis Guinan and James Lancaster, the first of three each for Ross Kettle and Rod Taylor, the third of three each for Carolyn Seymour and Lyman Ward, the fourth of four for Mark Rolston (and his second as Sergeant Terence Boyle), and the third of five "MSW's" for Felicia Lansbury.
