Gavin Dishart is a short, 21-year-old minister who moves to the town of Thrums, in Scotland, to take his first church. He lives with his mother, Margaret, and is very devoted to her and to his flock. One night during a riot in the town, he meets Babbie, a beautiful, mysterious young girl whom everyone thinks is a Gypsy. She is the one who alerts the townspeople of the arrival of the soldiers, and they attempt to arrest her. She flirts with Gavin and he helps her escape, but feels very guilty about it. He meets her occasionally in the nearby countryside and finds himself drawn to her although he tries hard to stay away. Finally he can bear it no longer and tells her he loves her. She says she can’t marry him and disappears.

The country has a severe draught and a meeting is called to pray for rain. On the way, Gavin meets Babbie for the first time in a long time and demands to know why she has left him. She confesses who she is, an orphan who was found and raised by Lord Rintoul. She is going to marry Rintoul the next day. Gavin forgets about the prayer meeting. The two talk for a long time and soon everyone is searching for him. Rintoul arrives and Gavin grabs Babbie. They run to a nearby Gypsy encampment and get married by the chief.

Everything happens at once. Gavin’s elders are seeking him to run him out of town for missing the prayer meeting and cavorting with a Gypsy. Rantoul is chasing them. A massive storm hits. Rob Dow, a simple-minded drunk who loves Gavin kidnaps Babbie with the intent to kill her to save Gavin from disgrace. Gavin tries to follow but gets lost in the storm and almost dies. Babbie gets away from Dow and wanders through the rain to Margaret’s house. (Margaret doesn’t know who she is and thinks she’s just a young girl needing shelter.) Rantoul follows her, but Babbie tells him she loves Gavin. The next day, Gavin thinks Rantoul has Babbie and rushes to his house to stop the wedding. On the way he comes to the river in flood stage and sees Rantoul stranded on a small island that is being washed away. He jumps from the bank and pulls him to safety, but the townspeople cannot save them from the flood. Gavin stands on his shrinking island and preaches a message to his people. When they see how bravely he faces death, they forgive him for marrying Babbie (whom they now know is not a Gypsy). At the last minute, Dow shows up and leaps to them with a rope. They are pulled to safety but Dow dies. Gavin returns to Babbie, they are married again and live happily ever after.

The narrator is Gavin Ogilvy, a schoolmaster from a nearby town. Years before he had loved Margaret but seen her married to Adam Dishart. When Adam disappears, he marries Margaret and has Gavin, but Adam shows up and Ogilvy disappears. By the time of this story, Adam has long since died but Margaret considers her marriage to Ogilvy a disgrace and he refuses to see her in fear that it will shame her. When Gavin stumbles out of the storm, he takes refuge in Ogilvy’s house and learns the truth about his father. Margaret is never told, but after she dies, Gavin tells his children that Ogilvy is their grandfather and it is for them in the future that he writes the book.

It was a great book. An exciting story with tons of interesting characters. I lost myself in the life of the town and was on the edge of my chair (figuratively) with suspense, not knowing until the very end if Gavin and Babbie were going to end up together. I felt what Gavin was feeling for Babbie, and she is one of the great romantic women in all the books I’ve read. I’ll admit it was corny and implausible, and that’s why I didn’t rate it a 10, but I loved it all the same.