Cut, Color, Murder

Ali Reed is a widow and hairstylist in the small town of Golden Peak, where the annual Miss Golden Peak pageant is the year's biggest event. The film opens with Ali's sister, Chelsea, struggling to pay her tuition and deciding to enter the pageant for the $25,000 prize, despite her reservations about the 'antiquated' nature of the competition. The pageant is run by Mitzi Stewart, a demanding and often cruel director who holds the town's social strings. During a rehearsal, tensions boil over between rival pageant moms Sara Hendricks and Olivia Stevens, and Mitzi is seen berating various staff members, including the host Darren and the director Stan. The plot takes a dark turn when Mitzi is found murdered in her office, stabbed with a pair of professional shears belonging to Ali's salon. Because Chelsea's fingerprints are on the weapon—as she is responsible for cleaning the salon's tools—she becomes a primary suspect for the new detective, Kyle Crawford. Ali, protective of her sister and still grieving her late husband (a detective killed in the line of duty), begins her own investigation. She discovers that Darren, the pageant host, was embezzling funds and that Stan, the director, was having a secret affair with Mitzi. A 'vitality ring' worn by Mitzi establishes the time of death at 4:33 PM, which Ali uses to cross-reference the security footage from the country club. The investigation takes a bizarre turn when Stan's alibi is revealed to be 'walking his rabbit,' a claim supported by a local vet. Ali eventually realizes that Mitzi was wearing Sara Hendricks' jacket at the time of the murder and had recently changed her hair to match Sara's style. This leads Ali to the conclusion that the killer intended to murder Sara, not Mitzi. In the climax, Ali is lured to a dark building by Olivia Stevens, who admits she tried to kill Sara for getting her daughter disqualified. Olivia attempts to kill Ali to cover her tracks, but Detective Crawford arrives just in time to save her. The film concludes with Chelsea winning the Miss Golden Peak crown, Ali finding the strength to let go of her late husband's memory, and a budding professional respect (and potential romance) forming between Ali and Kyle.