The Penguin Classics edition features a new introduction by Claire Lamont

Set within a framing narrative told by Chrystal Croftangry, these three stories are set in the years following the Jacobite defeat and all feature characters who are leaving Scotland to seek their fortunes elsewhere. In ‘The Highland Widow’ and ‘The Two Drovers’, two young men find themselves torn between traditional Scottish loyalties and the opportunities offered by England.
And ‘The Surgeon’s Daughter’ follows three young Scots to India during the first phase years of the British Empire.