Scott's magnificent historical romance Rob Roy is set against the background of the 1715 Jacobite rising.

In the foreground of the novel we meet young Francis Osbaldistone, who, following a quarrel with his father, has been banished to join his feckless cousins on the Northumbrian estate of Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone. When Frank discovers that his treacherous cousin Rashleigh, a Jacobite intruder, has designs on beautiful Diana Vernon, and is scheming to bring about the financial ruin of the family, Francis travels to Scotland to enlist the help of the outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor.

Rob Roy moves across a vigorous and colourful canvas linking the world of the London mercantile house of Osbaldistone and Tresham and the remote moutain hideaway of Rob Roy and his clansmen in an exhilarating story of heroism, romance and Highland adventure.