The story is set in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire around 1306, shortly after the death of William Wallace during the Wars of Scottish Independence. From Scott's introduction: "The incidents on which the ensuing Novel mainly turns, are derived from the ancient Metrical Chronicle of The Brace, by Archdeacon Barbour, and from the History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, by David Hume of Godscroft; and are sustained by the immemorial...