How to Survive a Murder is a remarkable look at a gut-wrenching tale of a tragic crime that never should have occurred. Filmmaker John MacGibbon and his family are desperate to find out what led to his mother-in-law, Vibeke Rasmussen, being slashed and stabbed more than 35 times late one night in her apartment in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts. Police would reveal only that they suspected a 24-year-old man with a violent past. Frustrated by the puzzling hostility and evasive behavior of state and local authorities, MacGibbon launches his own investigation and uncovers a web of lies and deceit spun to protect an influential Plymouth family including police cover-ups, lenient judges and prosecutors and the dark family secrets that turned a privileged, charming and deeply disturbed young man into a killer.