by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905) First published in 1875 Malcolm MacPhail has lived, for all of his twenty or so years, in a fishing village on the north coast of Scotland. He lives with his grandfather and, though he has never met his parents, has no curiosity about the details of his birth. However, others in the town have their own curiosity, and their own suspicions, about where this highland man and his infant grandson came from, those twenty or so years ago. When the local marquis and his daughter come to live in their grand estate just outside the town, unoccupied for many years, events begin to move which introduce to them the humble Malcolm, and which may shed some light on Malcolm's past while changing the course of his future. (Devorah Allen)

In the first book, The Fisherman's Lady, the new marquis, Malcolm, discovers his true identity; but for very important reasons of his own, he continues to live as the simple fisherman whom the villagers know and love. His chief task is to fulfill his promise to his late father in caring for his headstrong half-sister, Florimel. Enamored by high society and its dark temptations, she succumbs to the charm of an unworthy suitor. How can Malcolm rescue her without revealing the devastating truth concerning her own past? The story of a truly unselfish man, struggling to live in a selfish world.