This three-act domestic drama centers on a young squire who has secretly married a poor local girl while his family expects him to wed a wealthy cousin to save the estate. Caught between love and obligation, he becomes entangled with a devoted but disabled foster-brother whom he enlists in a desperate plot to remove the clandestine wife. Rustic clerics, scheming agents, and comic retainers complicate the plans. Set in rural Ireland, the play mixes melodrama, social conflict, and comic folklore to examine class, honor, and divided loyalties.