Set near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who ruled from 1558 to 1603, Master Rosalind takes place from 1598 to 1600. The main character, Rosalind Broome, lives with her grandfather in Cowley, a small town near Oxford, England. Her grandfather asks her to take a book to Dr. Hornsby, the master of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Rosalind—who knows that it is unsafe for young girls to walk alone on the roads—dresses for the journey in boy's clothes.

Rosalind decides to attend a play while she is in Oxford, but when Dr. Hornsby recognizes her at the performance—offlimits to youths because of the supposedly "scandalous" nature of plays —she flees into the woods. Abducted by a man she believes to be an "Abraham Man," or wandering madman, Rosalind travels with her captor to London and joins the highly organized society of...