Character Flaws: Being the Complete and Unnecessary Account of Murder Vernon Suggs Pruitt III, Cordial, Georgia, in Which Everyone Is Guilty Nobody Charged

Set in August 1977 in the small town of Cordial, Georgia, Character Flaws follows the bizarre aftermath of the murder of local pillar Vernon Suggs Pruitt III. Vernon writes and directs an original theater production, secretly telling all eleven cast members that they are playing the actual murderer. Driven by this secret role, each actor subtly tampers with the production-from swapping prop knives for real ones, to increasing aspirin doses, to waxing the stage floor. During opening night, Vernon is stabbed during a planned blackout. Believing it to be a brilliant performance, two hundred and six audience members applaud for nine minutes while Vernon bleeds out on stage from a survivable wound, urged by the long-suffering stage prompter to "stay down". When Sheriff Dewey Ganns and GBI Special Agent Doyle Petway investigate, they are baffled when all eleven cast members independently confess to the murder. Assisted by Wanda Faye Tuggle-an obituary writer who maintains pre-written drafts on every resident-the investigators piece together how eleven tiny, well-intentioned acts of sabotage combined with health factors to create a fatal accident. Ultimately, the case is closed with no criminal charges, leaving the town to turn the tragic production into a beloved local tradition.