About the strangest novel to date. Starts in the 'present' with Duncan and his wife Kate are in their humble cottage, when a lady and her baby arrive out of the storm, and the lady promptly dies. Duncan and Kate resolve to raise the infant as their own. There is then a long flash back to tell the story of how Duncan was a young peasant fisherman who once chanced to save the life of Matilda, the infant heiress of Sanda. He became her faithful servant. She was happily married to Edwin, but Edwin was poisoned by his uncle Ronald, the head of Ronaldsha. There is much Gothic business with sighing statues and portents of evil. Matilda bears a child, Edwina. Ronald then forces Matilda to marry him on threat of putting out Edwina's eyes, and Matilda in due course expires. Duncan and Kate attempt to carry on looking out for Edwina but are eventually forced from the castle and another servant, Seward, promises to watch out for her in their place. Back in the present, it then emerges that the lady was of course Edwina and the child is her son, who Kate and Duncan name Theodore. Theodore is brought up as a peasant and yet has an innate sense of honour and pride. In due course, Seward returns and recognises Theodore. Seward then launches into a long explanation of where he has been all this time, which is mainly set on the continent and seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the main story. Seward's narrative finishes and the novel ends, with an apology from the author (named here as 'Hugh Doherty' although Ann Doherty on the title page) that s/he needed the money to support his/her child, explaining that 'no conclusion is better than a bad one'.

Speech is represented as mainly slightly high register and slightly archaic for everyone, including the peasant Duncan and Kate, apart from one moment when a centinel set by Ronald to watch over Matilda suddenly speaks with a marked Scots dialect, and Kate code-switches to try and persuade him to help them.