Rebellion starts with a prologue set in 1735 at the family home in Glenroe Forest in Scotland, ten years before the main part of the novel. Serena MacGregor is a pre-adolescent bemoaning the fact that she did not get to go hunting with her father, Ian, and older brother, Coll. When she sees riders approaching, she starts to greet them, but a warning from her mother, Fiona, sends her and the other two children upstairs as English dragoons in red coats sweep into the yard. The dragoons, under the command of the sadistic Captain Standish, torch villagers' homes and plan to make an example of the MacGregor men, whom the captain accuses of conspiring against the British ruler, Queen Caroline. With the men out hunting, he vents his anger on Fiona by raping her then throwing her naked into the room with her children. Serena's hatred of the English...