As the chief's second son, Ewan MacKinloch resents being offered up as the sacrificial lamb in a marriage arranged to end a 300-year feud with the MacCarrons. He trades places with a one-armed clansman in the hopes Shona MacCarron will refuse to go through with the wedding. Unbeknownst to him, Shona too has traded places with an aunt known as Lady Lazy-Eye, so she can avoid the marriage arranged after the recent death of her father. Confusion reigns when alchemy draws them to each other and they risk aiding the cause of factions ambitious to usurp the hereditary MacCarron chieftaincy.