1766, Warbrooke, Maine... Montgomerys in America, prerevolutionary... the three Montgomery men have gone out into the world, but at home, father has been in an accident and is paralyzed from the waist down... and his only daughter mistakenly married the English customs rep who is now bilching the montgomery's wealth and abusing the colonists... the sister sends out letters to her brothers to return home and rescue them...]]

The Taggarts are " the town joke. they were used to contrast to everyone's bad luck. No matter what happened to you, you could always look at the Taggarts and see somebody worse off than you were. They were poorer than anyone else, and dirtier - and theycovered their misery with pride." Eleanor, the oldest daughter, is housekeeper for the Montgomery's.. Jessica, the most beautiful woman in Warbrooke, dresses in pants and uses her father's broken down boat to fish & feed the rest of the brood - (their parents died)... and Jessica has never gotten along with Alexander.

Alexander, the youngest, has been hanging out with Nick, a Russian duke... who offers to sail him back to America. when they make it to Boston, Alex is upset to see how the british are treating the colonists, he dresses in black with a scarf mask (ala zorro) dubbed The Raider by Nick, he goes out to right some wrongs... he stops 6 british soldiers from harrassing a woman, and gets shot for his trouble...as the british are looking for him, Nick pads him and dresses him in his cousins' gaudy clothes... they leave, and he is very ill, infection of the gunshot, as they make it back to Warbrooke...

Off the boat, with soldiers looking for the Raider, Nick pads, wigs, & dresses Alex in the flashy clothes, and still feverish, Alex zigzags down the dock... and Jessica and the townspeople, who were hoping this montgomery would save them, starts laughing at him...

And Alex decides to keep up the disguise as a way of figuring out what is happening with his brother-in-law & the british... and he dresses as the Raider to help distract the british from finding contraband & taking back the money obtained from a friend's confiscated ship... and as the Raider, he publically kisses Abby & tries to kiss Jessica, who when she pulls away, he grabs her atop his horse and tosses her into the water trough... thus the townspeople laugh at her...

And as the story proceeds, Alex and Jessica become friends - he keeps her out of trouble (especially trouble as a result of her friendship with the Raider), ultimately marrying her with the British admiral insists she marry within 2 weeks or he was giving her to a british soldier... before wedding, Jessica has sex with the Raider... but once married though attracted to the Raider she refuses to have sex with him and dishonor Alex... Alex is fit to be tied as he pushes her to love him as Alex but he cannot leave her alone as the Raider... when she figures out he is the Raider, she spends another week pretending not to know and driving both Alex and the Raider crazy...

In a bit of unrealism, the brother in law gets the Raider caught, just as Jessica shows her love for all of him ... and they get him out of it by dressing all in town in Raider clothes for his trial, thus bringing the admiral and the customs man into question, both sent back to England in disgrace.

and a substory is Eleanor Taggart and Nick... Nick acts as Alex's bondsman, and Eleanor orders him about... and Nick tolerates only so much... and they start to spend time together, and she tells Eleanor that she will be leaving, going with Nick... and Nick shows up the next day with his entourage, as the Russian Duke... : )

As the Ra