[3][2] The castle of the Scottish Gordon clan has been leased to a wealthy American, Andrew Quainton, whose daughter is the charming Peggy.

She disguises herself as a strolling fortune teller and soon meets a young private in the Gordon Highlanders, Angus Graeme.

Angus woos Peggy and gains her affection, and she is delighted to fall in love with the humble Scottish soldier lad.

[4]The New York Times reviewer praised Hicks's wife, Ellaline Terriss, the costumes and the "effective" use of the show's chorus, and thought that the score had "two excellent songs and a number of fetching dances" but says that dramatic interest lagged after the first act, with the second act being "at times ... very tedious."

Unlike The Catch of the Season and The Earl and the Girl, two Hicks musical comedies that transferred to Broadway in 1905, The Gay Gordons did not make it across the Atlantic, despite its achieving great success in London,[5] but it did play in Australia.