The novel is set in Tweeddale in Scotland and follows the adventures of John Burnet, a relative of the 17th - century historian Gilbert Burnet . The book is written as an autobiography detailing the plot from the viewpoint of the eponymous writer . Burnet is brought up as the only son of a minor landowner in Tweeddale and falls in love with a neighbour's daughter, Marjory Veitch, who was his childhood playmate .