Alicia, the daughter of an honest poor couple, is taken to live at Lauderbrooke Hall by the Lord Lauderbrooke. She is to be a ladies' maid to the ailing Lady Lauderbrooke. All goes well for Alicia until Lady Lauderbrooke dies, after which Lord L. makes unwanted advances. Alicia refuses these, and so Lord. L. locks her in. Alicia escapes, only to find herself at a nearby castle in the clutches of the awful Rufus B. and his wife. After a good deal of groaning, trapdoors, locked doors and so on, Alicia comes across another prisoner. In the meantime, Augustus, son of the Lauderbrookes (who is secretly in love with Alicia) rides to her rescue. The denouement sees the whole terrible story emerge, Rufus die, Lord L. be exiled to the Isle of Man, Augustus and Alicia get together etc etc etc. Best of all, the fellow prisoner turns out to be Beaufort, Lord L.'s brother and also Alicia's natural father. At this late point she discovers she was a foundling. Her mother was incarcerated (by Lord L.) in a lunatic asylum, and is released. The reunited family take up residence at Lauderbrooke Hall.

Alicia's adoptive parents, poor country folk, are accorded non-standard language in the opening passages where Lord L. calls by for sustenance. Non-standard grammar is italicised in the narrative, and there is also some in dialogue. A woodsman also has some non-standard dialogue. Very interesting! There is no suggestion that this is regional - seems entirely social.