***SPOILERS*** Inducing old frail and naive Naomi Freshwater, Partricia Collinge, to suffer a fatal heart attack by forcing her to dance with him and denying Naomi her heart medication as she slowly went under taxi driver and part-time country preacher Robert Evans, Peter Falk, felt that she'll leave her Victorian style house to him. You can just imagine how Evans felt when Naomi's niece Laura, Dina Merrill, showed up days later claiming the house that her Aunt Naomi left to her in her will!
Evens using his country boy charm and good looks tries to get Laura to marry him so he can get his grubby hands on Aunt Naomi's house by being the man, as Laura's husband, of the house. At first falling for his act in being a "Man of God" with nothing but good intentions Laura somehow smells a rat in Evans' "Holier then Thou" routine. She also get a bit disgusted with him trying to force himself on her which is the exact opposite that a "Man of God" that Evans claims to be should be doing. In fact it's later when Laura tells the overbearing and a bit obsessed with her Evens to take a hike that he,in not knowing his own strength, ends up strangling her to death!
***SPOILERS*** In trying to rid the body from the police Evans gets Laura's gardener young Craig Curtis to help him dump her body, that's locked in a trunk, in a ditch and set in on fire thus cremate the evidence! That evening with Evans giving one of his fire and brimstone sermons at his church about good and evil all of a sudden the sky opens up and it starts pouring cats and dogs. It's then that young Curtis discovers Laura's half burned body and calls the local police to investigate! Which leads them straight to her as well as Naomi's killer Robert Evans!