Lord Summerisle was the third generation Laird or owner of the Scottish island Summerisle. Descended from his grandfather who came to the isle full of mid-Victorian zeal as he put it, Lord Summerisle has maintained and encouraged the pagan beliefs instilled in the island's population by his father and grandfather. The islands seemingly unnatural ability to sustain tropical plant species, abundant crop yields, and fruitful orchards is attributed by all to their worship of the old gods .Lord Summerisle is more than the Laird of the island, though. He also acts as the high priest of the old religion , a pagan Celtc/Druid faith which reviles Christian morals and indeed Christianity itself. This is made quite plain to a newly arrived policeman, by various lacivious displays: couples copulating in the neglected churchyard, naked young women jumping over a ritual flame, and a teacher giving adolescent girls a lecture on the phallic nature of a Maypole... all under encouragement by Lord Summerisle, of course.He is eventually confronted by the police officer, a Sergeant of the Scottish Constabulary, Neil Howie, whose mission is to determine the circumstances under which a young girl, Rowan Morrison, has allegedly gone missing.