In the small town of Killraven, Elvira Clancy is a 24-year-old obituary writer at a struggling newspaper who has just had her salary cut, in favor of being paid per obituary. When she 'accidentally' kills a lowlife in town, she realizes she might have a previously untapped bloodlust.

She relishes using ever more devious methods to kill off the town's unpleasant residents in what look like tragic accidents. She stalks, kills, then publishes. But her plans are derailed when the newspaper hires a suspicious new crime correspondent and she starts liking him.