In 1671 England, the Countess of Lorne and her young daughter, Lady Lorna, stop briefly at the White Horse Inn near the coast of Devonshire. While waiting, Lorna meets John Ridd, son of a local farmer, who falls in love with the young noblewoman and gives her his knife with his name engraved in the handle. The girl in turn rewards him with her handkerchief. When the countess leaves the village, a clan of cutthroat outlaws called the Doones, led by exiled nobleman Sir Charles Ensor Doone, drives her carriage into the surf and robs the passengers. When Lorna puts up a fight using John Ridd’s knife, Sir Ensor admires her spirit and abducts her as “a fine sweetheart for a Doone some day.” John, who has followed the carriage on his horse, rolls a rock down a cliff, and, unable to stop the kidnapping, vows to fight the Doones when he grows up. Over the next few years, as Lorna blossoms into womanhood in the Doone stronghold of Bagworthy Valley, Sir Ensor Doone grows fond of his charge. One day, one of Sir Ensor’s clansmen, called “Counsellor Doone” because of his conniving ways, informs the leader that his son, Carver Doone, desires Lorna and has “no objection to a legal marriage.” However, Sir Ensor knows that Carver is malevolent, and hopes to protect Lorna from marrying him. Lorna herself fears Carver and dismisses all young men of the Doone clan because they treat their wives and wenches badly. A mile upriver from the Doone village, John Ridd has become a strapping lad searching for adventure. His cousin, Ruth, loves him secretly, but he appears uninterested. One day, while freeing a log in the rapids of the river, John is caught in a current and carried over a waterfall. As he awakens on the riverbank, he sees Lorna leaning over him, and is smitten. Recognizing him, Lorna shows John the knife he gave her years earlier, and explains that even though she does not know her real name, she is certainly not a Doone. Seeing Carver nearby carrying a musket, Lorna leads John toward the moor, the safest way back to his village. Pointing to a large promontory nearby, he tells her to climb to the top and wave a cloth if she should ever need him. Later, as Sir Ensor grows fatally ill, he gives Lorna her mother’s stolen necklace and asks forgiveness for abducting her. Privately, he signs a scroll revealing her true identity and sends it away by courier. When Carver Doone tries to force Lorna into marriage, she sends a girl to signal John from the rock, and by luck he sees her from his father’s field. Retracing his journey downriver and over the waterfall, John sneaks into the Doone village and rescues Lorna from a forced wedding. He is able to escape because Sir Ensor, with his dying breath, stops Carver and other hooligans from capturing them. Later, Carver travels to John’s village to abduct his rightful bride, and sees the arrival of a royal carriage surrounded by mounted soldiers. Thanks to Sir Ensor’s document, the Countess of Brandir has come to take charge of Lady Lorna, and return her to her proper station. John misses Lorna and travels to London to find her. He is told that Lady Lorna will attend the “Christening of the Royal Infant,” the son of King James II, in the chapel of Whitehall Palace the following day. Joining the commoners in the chapel gallery, John stops a group of anarchists from shooting the royal heir and is acclaimed as a hero. When he lifts up the infant to play with him, however, the king and his court realize John is a rube and turn him away. Lorna denounces them by surrendering her title and returning to John’s village for their marriage. Dduring the ceremony, a vengeful Carter Doone, alerted by the jealous Ruth, shoots Lorna. Outraged, John leads local peasants in a victorious attack on Bagworthy Valley, and throws Carter into a quicksand pit. Returning home, John finds Lorna on her way to recovery.