Jackson is a young journalist living in New York City... or at least a young man trying to be a journalist. He needs a break from his life - his very short and unsuccessful life. This seek of refuge leads him to the small village of Sleepy Hollow, a seemingly peaceful place. But all small towns house dark tales, and he soon learns of the legend of the headless horseman, a Hessian war veteran traveling throughout the American countryside. When the town big shot got the idea that the Hessian had stolen the heart of his fiancée, he and his friends beheaded the Hessian with his own sword right in the streets of Sleepy Hollow. They buried his body in the woods just outside of Sleepy Hollow, but it was said that the head was disposed of elsewhere. In the nights following the gruesome execution, the offenders were found dead, one by one, their heads taken. Only once the horseman's head was returned to his grave did the murders cease.

But no sooner has Jackson set foot in this peaceful town do strange murders begin to occur, very similar to the killings that took place over two hundred years ago. The bodies are found with their heads gone, and the people that are being killed now are the descendants of the men who murdered the horseman all those years ago. Although the horseman's head was returned, he is in search of something - something else that was taken from him. And he will not rest until he has it.