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| - The "Rock-A-Billy Kid", Floyd Burney, arrives at a small town in search of a new song. He is directed to a dilapidated shop in the woods run by a reclusive old man. After his offer of money in exchange for an original song is rebuffed, Floyd hears a voice singing and wanders off through the woods to find the singer, not seeing a nearby tombstone inscribed with his name. Continuing to look for the singer in the foggy, desolate woods, Floyd twice passes a silent woman in a black shawl, whom he fails to see. Next to a lake, he encounters a pretty but mysterious woman in white, Mary Rachel, who reluctantly plays a song for him about two lovers who meet in the woods and are torn apart by tragedy. Floyd offers to buy the song rights from her, but she claims it isn't for sale. As he tries to sedu
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| abstract
| - The "Rock-A-Billy Kid", Floyd Burney, arrives at a small town in search of a new song. He is directed to a dilapidated shop in the woods run by a reclusive old man. After his offer of money in exchange for an original song is rebuffed, Floyd hears a voice singing and wanders off through the woods to find the singer, not seeing a nearby tombstone inscribed with his name. Continuing to look for the singer in the foggy, desolate woods, Floyd twice passes a silent woman in a black shawl, whom he fails to see. Next to a lake, he encounters a pretty but mysterious woman in white, Mary Rachel, who reluctantly plays a song for him about two lovers who meet in the woods and are torn apart by tragedy. Floyd offers to buy the song rights from her, but she claims it isn't for sale. As he tries to seduce her, he convinces her to sing at least part of the song into his tape recorder. At one point, as Mary Rachel sings, it is revealed that some distance away, the mysterious woman in black is watching, sadly—and that this woman appears to be a mourning Mary Rachel. Sometime later, a jealous young man named Billy Rayford with a rifle shows up and confronts Floyd. "The Rayford Brothers" have been mentioned in the song, and Mary Rachel has said that she is "bespoke" unto Billy Rayford. Billy Rayford essentially accuses Burney of seducing his intended bride. Billy intends to take Floyd back to his brothers so that they can deal with him, but Floyd resists and kills Rayford. Mary Rachel's song is suddenly heard on the tape recorder, featuring a new verse that she hadn't previously sung. The new verse reflects the event that just happened ("You killed Billy Rayford/ 'neath an old willow tree..."), and foreshadows a future attack. Floyd runs off, dragging Mary Rachel with him while she tries to convince him to stay. Soon, Billy Rayford's brothers arrive to chase after Floyd. As he prepares to flee, Mary Rachel begs him to stay, hoping things will be different "this time". She implies that these same events have occurred many, many times before. Ignoring her, Burney runs away. As he does so, he looks back and sees that Mary Rachel's clothes have changed; she is now dressed in black, with a black shawl, mourning, and professing her love for Burney. Running wildly, Burney soon finds himself back at the shop in the woods, where the old man declines to help him hide. In his anger, Floyd kills the old man, then hides among the old musical instruments in the shop. Billy Rayford's three brothers arrive at the shop, and see the old man's body. When Floyd bumps a music box, it starts playing, and soon all the instruments in the shop are chiming, ringing, or clanging. Alerted to Floyd's location, the brothers (seen only in shadow) close in on him and shoot him. The camera returns to the image of the tombstone in the first scene, thus fulfilling the prophecy within the song that Floyd would die.
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