Hilary Quayle and her assistant, Gene, are asked to take on the publicity for an extravagant production of Macbeth to premiere at Madison Square Garden"s Felt Forum. Hilary had known the director many years ago in summer stock. Events proceed as usual in the theatrical world -- a world fraught with the hectic, the impassioned, the absolute certainty that nothing will be ready by opening night, and the absolute drive to belie that certainty. And on the night of the technical/dress rehearsal all efforts seem to be paying off with a rather splendid production -- until one of the corpses turns out not to be acting, and the gunshot during the blackout turns out to be no flamboyant anachronism. Hilary suspects "the play"s the thing" and studies the text and old sourcebooks, her trail finally taking her to the Folger Library in Washington, D.C. Gene, meanwhile, pursues the problem in more traditional fashion. His investigations leads through New York"s glamorous and less than glamorous...