- In Scotland in 1751, young David Balfour is shanghaied aboard a ship where he meets Jacobite rebel Alan Breck Stewart with whom he escapes to the Scottish Highlands, dodging the redcoats.
- David Balfour, a young boy, is shanghaied at the instigation of an uncle who is desirous of obtaining property that rightfully belongs to the lad. A tyrant of a captain and two mates transform the brig into a hell-ship for David, who has been pressed into service as a cabin boy, and when he meets with Alan Breck, a Scottish outlaw, he plans his escape. The two hold the ship's crew at bay while they make their way over the side into a small boat. They are finally picked up and landed on the Scottish coast, where they become involved in many adventures.
- Ebenezer Balfour, a miser, leads a solitary existence on the estate of Shaws, which he occupies through the generosity of his older brother, Alexander. Ebenezer receives a letter from Rankeiller, the lawyer, telling him that Alexander is dead and that his son, David, is on his way to claim the property, though he is as yet ignorant of his good fortune. Ebenezer determines by fair means or foul to keep possession of the estate, and when David arrives her receives him with scant courtesy. Before the erstwhile Laird of Shaws formulates a plan to rid himself of the lad, David discovers from lines written by his father when he was a boy that his uncle is the younger brother and he himself the heir to Shaws. When he demands a reckoning, Ebenezer sends him after a chest of papers in an ancient tower. As David ascends the staircase, guided only by flashes of lightning from the storm raging without, he narrowly escapes death from a step Ebenezer has hewed down and propped up with a loose board. Returning to Ebenezer, he demands an explanation, and announces that they will go to see the lawyer next day. On the morning comes a message from Hoseason, the unscrupulous master of the trading ship Covenant. Ebenezer pays him to take David aboard and sell him as a slave in the Carolinas, whither the brig is bound. Rendered unconscious by a blow on the head the boy is carried aboard and awakes at sea, dazed and ill. When Ransome, the cabin boy, is killed by the brutal first mate, David is made to serve in his place. Two nights later, off the Highland coast, the brig runs down a rowboat and there climbs aboard Alan Breck, an adventurer, an outlaw and a gentleman, and adherent of the exiled Stuart king. For thirty guineas Hoseason agrees to put him on the Scottish shore, and then plots to rob him of his money belt. David overhears and warns Alan, offering to help him against the villainous crew. A one-sided fight follows, in which the two heroes, far outnumbered, barricade themselves in the roundhouse, where all ammunition is stored. After killing half their adversaries they outwit the remaining ones and escape to shore in the ship's boat. Arriving again at Shaws, David goes directly to the home of Renkeiller, the lawyer, and relates to him the happenings of the past few weeks. By a clever ruse on the part of Alan Breck, who represents himself as Hoseason's messenger, Ebenezer exposes himself as the unscrupulous rascal that he is, and is forced to make reparation to David. The new Laird of Shaws offers to share all he has with his friend, but Alan elects to remain an outlaw in the service of the king he loves, and after an affectionate farewell the two comrades part.
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