A Set of Rogues

A weary narrator recounts the chaotic lives of a rag‑tag troupe of actors who set out during the plague to earn a living by selling dresses and performing wherever the pestilence had not yet driven people from their doors. Led by the larger‑than‑life Jack Dawson—a jolly, beef‑eating man with a surprisingly nimble step—his sprightly daughter Moll, the smooth‑talking Ned Herring, and the narrator himself, a scholar‑turned‑fiddler, they travel the English countryside from Tottenham to Oxford, confronting petty crimes, the threat of the stocks, and the devastation of a city fire that leaves their London stage in ruins.

Their makeshift enterprise quickly turns into a series of desperate adventures, as they chase fleeting fortunes and confront the harsh realities of a world in turmoil. Early on, Moll’s impulsive marriage and the group’s entanglements with dubious characters hint at a tangled web of regret and daring escapades that will carry them far beyond the borders of England.