The story recounts the tragic love of Edgar, Master of Ravenswood, and Lucy Ashton, the daughter of Ravenswood's enemy, Sir William Ashton. Sir William's wife, Lady Ashton, is the villain and evil perpetrator of the whole intrigue, haughty and manipulative in her objective to cancel the initial happy engagement between Edgar and Lucy and forcing the latter to a speedily arranged marriage with the Laird of Bucklaw. In the climax, when the intrigue takes its full course and the wedding celebratio