The Giftie is based upon a very real historical character: the Reverend Robert Kirk, the Gaelic scholar of Aberfoyle who, it was widely believed among the locals, disappeared bodily into the Otherworld in 1691, and whose voice has been heard many times since, as he tries to get back again. The Giftie is a multi-level tale about how Marcy Macleod, a troubled woman living in that quintessential English town of Bath, accidentally summons stirs and calls him up into the latter part of the 20th Century. In her eyes at least he is a magnificent creature, able to transform the way she looks, and even the way the world looks, when he touches her. He shows her that, far from being a broken, middle-aged, mentally-ill woman, she is in fact The Giftie, a ravishing creature of enchantment who, three centuries earlier, had caused him to lose himself in the Otherworld in the first place. He takes away her madness. He even takes away her cellulite. No longer is she perpetual Outsider. Together they explore the bleak city that Marcy has come to know and loathe. Under the power of his peculiar vision, they see the 20th Century streets of Bath as they would have been in Kirk s own time. His unique combativeness involves them both in many fights, and old scores are settled. She adores his fighting ability. His love-making. His humour. His hatred of the English. Under his love, she remembers her own innate powers and is able to show him the Gate Between, which then takes them back to the 17th Century.