In which a young Scottish woman named Jeanie, encountering local suspicion and hostility, is brought before the stern but conscientious Rector of Willingham after her encounter with a disordered companion, her quiet demeanour contrasting with the rustic bluntness around her. The clergyman, possessing both pastoral care and judicial office, listens attentively to her tale, revealing a landscape of social strictness and complex etiquette to the wandering stranger.