The last of the "Waverley Novels" in point of time reaches a period only a few years prior to its day of writing. It is also "upon a plan different from any other that the author had ever written''—that of depicting contemporary social life. The chief thread of the plot, relating to the victimizing of an unfortunate young woman, is somewhat involved (and perhaps weakened by the author's subsequent change in his original MS.) and can be explained more clearly at the outset than by following the development of the story.

Clara Mowbray, the only daughter of a wealthy landowner in southern Scotland, is at sixteen the romantic comrade of an older and more unprincipled cousin, Hannah Irwin. Together they roam the countryside and read exotic works of fiction. In the course of these jaunts Clara meets a handsome young stranger, Francis Tyrrel, whose birth is under a cloud. They declare a mutual passion which is fostered by Hannah. Francis's half-brother, Valentine Bulmer, the ostensible heir of their father, the Earl of Etherington, acts as go-between for the young people and arranges a secret marriage at night; but at the ceremony Bulmer substitutes himself as the bridegroom ...