While guiding a small party of English settlers to the protection of a fort during the French and Indian War, Hawkeye, a frontier scout, and his two Indian friends, the remaining braves of the Mohican tribe, struggle against the evils of Uncas who desires a white maiden for his wife.
Set in 1757 amidst the French and Indian War, the novel tells the story of frontier scout Hawkeye and his efforts to conduct two daughters of a fort commander to safety.