The narrative takes place in a drowsy Dutch valley where a lanky, superstitious schoolmaster courts a farmer's daughter while lodging with local families. His mixture of credulity and ambition brings him into comic rivalry with a boastful local suitor. Local supernatural lore centers on a headless rider said to haunt the roads, and after an evening at a harvest party the schoolmaster rides home through a stormy night. Pursued by the spectral horseman, he vanishes mysteriously near the churchyard, leaving behind ambiguous traces and a community divided between rational explanation and lingering superstition.