Lord Holtby, self-made millionaire, acquires an estate in the Highlands, and settles there with his daughter Mary. He has ambitious ides to modernise everything in the vicinity, but these ideas do not happen to coincide with those of the crofters in general, and Mark Stewart in particular, who prefer to continue in the way of there forbears, and who bitterly oppose Lord Holtby in his plans.
Charmingly and graphically related is this long struggle between two determined men, in the issue of which, needless to say, Mary Holtby plays no small part.