Marie Gourdon

A storm over a Scottish castle sets the scene for a quarrel about loyalty in 1745. Ivan McAllister has pledged himself to the prince's cause, while his father fears the consequences for their estates and the family's standing at court. Maud Ogilvy places this opening conflict within a historical romance rooted in the Scottish settlement of the Lower St. Lawrence, where former soldiers married into French families and became farmers.

The Canadian river landscape remains important when the story turns to wealth and social ambition in Scotland. Noël McAllister enjoys his estate while Lady Margaret presses him to take an interest in public life. News of a Canadian singer and his questions about Marie Gourdon bring earlier connections back into view. Readers interested in migration, family loyalties and the pull of remembered places will find those concerns expressed through domestic conversations, regional detail and tensions between affection and rank.