The Trouble with Harry is that he won't stay buried. Discovered in the woods by Arnie Rogers (Jerry Mathers), he reports the body to his mother, Jennifer (Shirley MacLaine) who recognizes Harry as her estranged husband. But while feeling guilty and pondering what to do, Captain Albert Wiles (Edmund Gwen) comes across his body and thinks he killed him by mistake, while hunting rabbits. Local artist Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe) is enlisted by Jennifer to bury the body but finds him already buried by Miss Ivy Gravely (Mildred Natwick) who thinks she may have had something to do with his death. The discussions of how Harry died and who buried him when is part of the mystery that unfolds as ordinary people try to solve or cover up a death in the woods.