The old Lord Adam Weir of the Hermiston estate on the Scots borders is a gruff, boozy, hanging judge - the terror of Edinburgh law courts. His wife is a tremulous and pious Christian. Weir spends his time putting his wife down, even in the company of her only son, Archie. His mother dead of depression and stress, Archie grow to hate his father, but then goes into law studies, though his more modern and tolerant values clash with those of his father. Attending the hanging of yet another of his father's victims, Archie can no longer stand it and denounces his father publicly. As punishment he is rusticated to manage the family estate, Hermiston.