Scully must confront her own worst nightmares while investigating a disturbing case, leaving her vulnerable to the demonic fetishes of Donnie Pfaster.

After a funeral, Donnie Pfaster is left to look after the body. When he is discovered by his boss cutting hair off the body for his own sick joy he is sacked from his job.

Mulder and Scully are called onto the case by Agent Bocks who directs them to a grave which has been dug up, the body having it's hair and fingernails cut of. Bocks suspects aliens but Mulder for once thinks it is the work of a fetishist. Scully confronts one of her worst nightmares by looking at the grave but Mulder isn't taking it too seriously and doesn't think it is really an X-File. Mulder seems more interested in a certain Redskins v Vikings game.

Even so, Mulder releases the story of Donnie's killing to the press to warn people of him. Meanwhile, Donnie kills again by picking up a prostitute and murdering her when she discovers the atrocities in Donnie's room which is full of "souvenirs" from funerals gone by. Later on he tries to kill a student in his class but she gets away and Pfaster is finally arrested. While Scully is sleeping, she has a nightmare that Donnie's next victim is herself so she wakes up with a bang to the sound of a phone ringing. It's Mulder saying they've caught the guy who did it.

When they go in to talk to their suspect it is the wrong one. As they leave, Donnie leans out of the bars opposite the cell they were looking at obviously targeting Scully. As soon as they leave, Donnie is released from prison and is out on the loose again after the woman had dropped the charges. Meanwhile, Scully goes to talk to a FBI counsellor about the problems she is going through that she can't talk through with Mulder. She says that she doesn't want him to know "how much this bothering" her.

Later, Mulder and Scully find a fingerprint that leads them to where Donnie lives. He is nowhere to be seen but they do find a lock of hair and a finger hidden in a fridge. While Scully is on her own in a rental car returning to where Mulder is, she is forced off the road by Donnie and held hostage. Meanwhile, Mulder tries to find where Scully is. Scully is actually being held in his dead mother's house and when Donnie tries to run Scully a bath before he kills her, she runs off and hides only to be found and forced down the stairs. Just as Donnie is about to shoot her, Mulder and other agents burst open the door and arrest the frightened Pfaster. Scully collapses in tears into the arms of Mulder.

As we look at what Donnie was like through his childhood, Mulder remarks that the idea of a monster like Pfaster is as "frightening as any X-File" which we all know is the truth....