An interesting multi-stranded story that tells of the social life of a small lowlands town. Unusually, quite a lot of attention is paid to lower class characters.
Clarinda is a spinster over forty. She is going to live with her brother Bonclair and his three children who have recently returned from India and bought a small estate at Glenfergus. The family consists of one older brother and two sisters who present contrasting personalities: Flora is pretty and thoughtless, Amelia less pretty, bright and practical. We also hear the history of the vicar of Glenfergus, Gideon Cymbal, who is sensible without being brilliant, and who has brought up his nephew George and niece Charlotte. In due course Charlotte Cymbal and Amelia Bonclair become close friends. Gideon's sister Rachel lives with them too - she is kind and practical although not very well educated.
At a key evening scene the Bonclairs and Cymbals spend time together with Saville, of whom little is known locally. George falls for Flora, Saville likes Amelia, Clarinda hopes for Saville. The scene itself is a bit dull and preachy, however. In another early scene Amelia attends a local court with her father and is very impressed by a young lawyer who pleads for a poor widow successfully.
The backstory reveals Henry Saville is from Cumberland and is the only son of a farmer who lost his money. Saville was offered a place by a rich uncle in Aleppo, Syria, where he fell in love with his cousin Emma. They had to wind the business up and were captured by the Pacha of Acre. In prison his uncle died, and Saville believed that Emma commited suicide. Through the goodness of Ibrahim, Saville got away and returns to England, eventually stopping in Fergustown.
In another side story, there is a poor but young woman, Tibbie, who earns her keep through spinning but is generally a loner. In her backstory it is revealed that she loved a man Colin who decided to emigrate to America. She persuaded her parents to emigrate with her but they were killed on the voyage and she only just managed to make it back to Scotland, where she is very mournful. She refers to Mr Dalwinnock, whom she knew in her childhood. This proves to be the schoolteacher Mr Allan. The backstory to Allan Dalwinnock shows that in his youth he appeared to be rather like Burns, but never achieved any success.
A young man is involved in an accident and taken to the home of the Bonclairs. This turns out to be Charles Saltoun, who was the man Amelia liked as a lawyer. It further turns out that their fathers were good friends in their youth, so the path to true love is fairly smooth in this case. At the end everything is tied up in various marriages. Gideon Cymbal marries Clarinda (and is not very happy). Rachel marries Allan and he gets a better post with Dr Saltoun. Tibbie is reunited with Colin who takes Allan's old post as schoolteacher. Amelia marries Charles. Saville discovers that Emma is still alive and they are happily reunited. Flora nearly marries a Lord, is thwarted at the last minute but marries someone else rich instead. The novel finishes with the narrator observing that the children of these various matches are now growing up and forming the basis for the next set of life stories of Glenfergus.

Dialect representation is very interesting. There is a very nuanced use of Scots English to mark different social levels, with some very positive characters speaking Scots English (most notably Rachel). There is also some interesting metalanguage. In particular, there is a repeated motif that one of the ways that Amelia demonstrates that she is a good person is through her desire to learn Scots so that she can engage with the villagers. Note: vol 1 p. 52 there is an old woman who is fairly standard, but her daughter speaks Scots English quite strongly. This is not commented on at all so it is hard to decide whether it is deliberate.