As Hobbie Elliot and Patrick Earnscliff went across the Liddesdale hills of the Scottish Borders, going to Hobbies home, the moon suddenly revealed the figure of a human dwarf, who, on being spoken to, refused their offers of assistance. Next morning Hobbie and Earnscliff went to confront the strange being by daylight; and having helped him in collecting stones for constructing a hut, they supplied him with food and other necessaries. In a short time he had completed his dwelling, and became known to the neighbors as Elshender the Recluse. From that point on, Elshie, a loner goat shepherd, regarded by the locals as being in league with the Devil becomes embroiled in a complex tale of love, revenge, betrayal, Jacobite schemes and a threatened forced marriage.