Jessica is approached by her old friend Dorian Beecher, a shy poet, who begs her to help him. Dorian wants her to impersonate his mum in order to impress his boss, the father of his true love Sarah. Jessica learns that Dorian has been ridiculed for claiming to have seen a headless horseman on his previous visits to Sarah's house, and when his chief tormentor is found decapitated, Dorian is the prime suspect.

While bedridden, Jessica overhears a telephone conversation between two men who are plotting a murder.