"The Pirate" is not connected with historic annals, nor does it deal with the sea, except in an incidental way. It is a tale of neighborhood life off the northeast coast of Scotland. Basil Mertoun, a reticent and misanthropic man about which nothing is known, takes up his residence in a tumble-down mansion on a Shetland cape, which he rents at a nominal sum from Magnus Troil, an old landowner. Basil is accompanied only by a young son, Mordaunt, who, more sociable and agreeable than his father, makes acquaintances all about the countryside. Especially does he frequent the Troil home, attracted thither by the two charming daughters of Magnus, Minna and Brenda; but he is so impartial in his attentions that the local gossips do not know which he courts. Returning from their home one stormy night he takes refuge in the cottage of the Yellowleys, an eccentric old farmer and his miserly sister; but is warned by Norna, a half-crazed seeress, to proceed on his way ...