The central character and narrator is a young man named David Balfour. (Balfour is Stevenson's mother's maiden name.) Balfour is young and naive but resourceful; his parents have recently died, and he is out to make his way in the world. He is given a letter by the minister of Essendean, Mr. Campbell, to be delivered to the House of Shaws in Cramond, where David's uncle, Ebenezer Balfour, lives. On his journey, David asks many people where the House of Shaws is, and all of them speak of it darkly as a place of fear and evil.