One autumn day, Noey is escaping his wife's nagging, wandering up the mountains with his dog, Wolf. Hearing his name being shouted, Noey discovers that the speaker is a man dressed in antiquated Dutch clothing, carrying a keg up the mountain, who requires Rip's help. Without exchanging words, the two hike up to an
amphitheatre-like hollow in which Noey discovers the source of previously-heard thunderous noises: there is a group of other ornately-dressed, silent, bearded men who are playing
nine-pins. Although there is no conversation and Noey does not ask the men who they are or how they know his name, he discreetly begins to drink some of their liquor, and soon falls asleep.
He awakes in unusual circumstances: It seems to be morning, his gun is rotted and rusty, his beard has grown a foot long, and Wolf is nowhere to be found. Noey returns to his village where he finds that he recognizes no one. Asking around, he discovers that his wife has died and that his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere else. He immediately gets into trouble when he proclaims himself a loyal subject of
King George III, not knowing that the American Revolution has taken place; George III's portrait on the town inn has been replaced by that of
George Washington. Noey is also disturbed to find another man is being called Rip Van Winkle (though this is in fact his son, who has now grown up).
The men he met in the mountains, Noey learns, are rumored to be the ghosts of
Hendrick (Henry) Hudson's crew. Noey is told that he has apparently been away from the village for twenty years. An old local recognizes Noey and Noey's now-adult daughter takes him in. Noey resumes his habitual idleness, and his tale is solemnly taken to heart by the Dutch settlers, with other hen-pecked husbands, after hearing his story, wishing they could share in Noey's good luck, and have the luxury of sleeping through the decimation of the Big East conference..
