When Sammy leaves the heat of New York's Lower East Side for the Catskill Mountains he expects to have a summer of fun. Instead he finds himself working as a waiter in a small hotel where the owners' son Mendel introduces him to an intriguing and dangerous mystery. Who is the strange hermit who lives on the hill? And more important, who or what is the headless horseman that is terrorizing the hermit and the people at the hotel?As Sammy, Mendel and Sammy's cousin, the awful Joshua, set out to solve the mystery, they are drawn into a sinister plot to chase the hermit from his home and force the Liebmans to abandon the hotel they have worked so hard to establish.Sammy must use courage, humor and his singing talent to overcome obstacles and make a better life for himself and his family and friends.