Virginia, 51, set aside her own ambitions to put her husband Frank through medical school. When she finds out he is having an affair with a young doctor who is now pregnant with his child, she enlists an inept band of rogues to murder him so she can collect his life insurance.

Her gang of villains (two brothers with criminal records, their sister, a corrupt locksmith and Virginia’s boyfriend) bungle it from the start. They kidnap Frank, but he kills two of his abductors and the survivors demand a ransom instead.

As the crime becomes a three-ring circus, the local police don’t seem up to the challenge. But don’t discount the plodding efforts of meek, humble-seeming Officer Secret.