Iain Cattanach loves to play the fiddle and wander the hills tending his father's sheep. However, his self-sacrificing mother has other plans for him. A position in an Edinburgh legal firm is secured for Iain and he is forced to leave the countryside he loves. The city is alluring and sophisticated but, ultimately, events force him to return to Torglas and to face up to his family and long-time companion, Mary Cameron. This work contains beautiful characterization and evocative description of early 20th-century Edinburgh.