1745. The year of the final Jacobite uprising. Edward Waverley, a na ve, aristocratic English soldier is posted to Dundee as part of the Hanoverian army. He takes leave to visit the castle of his uncle's Jacobite friend, Baron Bradwardine, in the lowlands of Scotland. Wild Highlanders visit the castle, and curiosity gets the better of Waverley. He travels north into the Scottish Highlands and the heart of the Jacobite rebellion...