Jessica's trip to buy a handmade quilt for an anniversary goes sour as spoiled milk when an Amish deacon, Jacob Beiler, ends up dead on a scarecrow pole. Her publisher's assistant, Reuben, who was shunned because of the dead man, falls under immediate suspicion. Solving the case is going to be anything but plain and simple.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Sarah wrote a note to Jacob asking to talk, given that he hadn't fulfilled his promise to have her shunning lifted. He had no intention of doing so. She threatened to confess that the baby she's carrying is also his, so he tried to kill her. She fell and grabbed the pitchfork to keep him away, and he tripped over something in the straw and landed on the tines. She kept quiet only out of fear that no one would believe her.
- Chekhov's Gun: The night of the murder, Jessica comes downstairs and sees Jacob reading a note. The note turns out to have been why he went out to the barn that night, and the writer (accidentally) killed him.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: None of the prominent characters who had reason to hate Jacob killed him. He was killed by accident during an altercation with Sarah, a pregnant Amish girl who barely appears.
- Foreshadowing: The two Amish women who come into the quilt shop look askance at Sarah, implying she's being shunned as well. It turns out to be the motive for the murder.
- Gardening-Variety Weapon: The Victim of the Week is stabbed with a pitchfork.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Sarah becoming pregnant outside of wedlock has gotten her shunned by her entire community, and the father refuses to help. However, she never seems to consider getting rid of the baby.
- Hand on Womb: Sarah placing her hand on her baby bump confirms to Jessica that she's expecting.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Reuben namedrops the trope when describing how he hid the body. He strung it up on a pole with a straw hat, where it would look like a scarecrow. No one noticed until Jessica went for a walk.
- Hypocrite: Jacob shames his wife when he walks in on her and her former boyfriend succumbing to the temptation to kiss (something she tried to resist), yet he had sex with Sarah while married to Rebecca.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Jessica realizes that Sarah was the killer when she remembers her saying that it wouldn't take the sheriff long to search the barn. Jacob's body was found elsewhere, and the sheriff kept the details quiet, so how did she know the barn was the scene of the crime?
- Meaningful Name: Though it's hard to tell if the authors intended this, one meaning of "Jacob" is "supplanting", which is a very apropos name for a man who got another shunned so he could move in on his girlfriend.
- Never Accepted in His Hometown: Reuben Stoltz is an Amish boy who chose to leave behind his culture and, while working as a successful publisher's assistant, volunteers to drive Jessica to the area partially for the opportunity to show off to his old community and try to reconnect with them somewhat (with mixed results).
- Red Herring:
- Ethan, one of the local young men, hates Jacob for being cold, harsh, and self-righteous and packs up to leave after his death and Reuben's acquittal (though to be fair, he'd been talking about it before). The murder weapon also turns up in a cave he frequented. However, he didn't kill the man.
- Rebecca, Jacob's wife, had found out that he'd had Reuben shunned to drive him away and take her for himself. She was angry at him, and Jessica saw her nervously going to the barn the night of the murder. Reuben even thinks she did it and hides the pitchfork and body to protect her. However, she's also innocent.
- Scary Scarecrows: As Jessica is out for an early walk, she notices something odd about a scarecrow in the distance. When she gets closer, she discovers that the "scarecrow" is Jacob's body.
