Nine-year-old Almanzo lives with his family on a big farm in New York State at the end of the nineteenth century. He raises his own two calves, helps cut ice and shear sheep, and longs for the day he can have his own colt.

In 1756, during the French and Indian War in upper New York State, ten-year-old Edward saves his mother and sister during an attack by using the heavy, ancient Spanish gun left behind by his father who is on patrol.