Set in the summer of 1765, Redgauntlet centres around a third, fictitious, Jacobite rebellion. Kidnapped by Edward Hugh Redgauntlet, a fanatical supporter of the Stewart cause, the young Darsie Latimer finds himself caught up in the plot to enthrone the exiled Prince Charles Edward Stewart. The novel follows Darsie's adventures and those of the advocate Alan Fairford, who sets out to rescue him. These two young men from very different backgrounds are united by friendship and their optimistic belief in the settled Hanoverian establishment.

First published in 1824, this is the last of Scott's major Scottish novels, and perhaps his most complex statement about the relation between history and fiction. This edition uses the Magnum text of 1832.