The novel is set in the late 18th century and is about an elderly fisherman who unravels the mysterious origins of a foundling child who is washed ashore on the coast of Glamorganshire, South Wales.

[3] The stark form of Sker House is a central image for Blackmore,[2] who began writing the novel while he was a student at Oxford University.

[3] The Maid of Sker is set at the end of the 18th century; the story is told by Davy Llewellyn, an elderly fisherman, and is about a two-year-old girl who in a calm before a storm, drifts in a boat onto a beach in Glamorganshire.

[5] Davy gradually unravels the mystery and sets matters right, although many distractions, including an extended period at sea in which Blackmore gives a graphic account of the Battle of the Nile, delay him.

The Saturday Review stated "the book is exceedingly able, and strikingly original ... there is much powerful writing in it, a great deal of dry humour, with some touches of rare pathos".