A sweeping adventure of America's first frontier. It is 1755, and the quiet land of the Hudson Valley is enmeshed in the turmoil of the French and Indian War. Of all the legends born here, none is more magnificent than the one they call "Hawkeye." A fair-minded woodsman and an unbeatable marksman, Hawkeye lives off the land and in harmony with his Indian friend, Chingachgook, the last of the tribe of Mohicans. Elizabeth Shields has come to this land with her husband, William, to run a trading post at Fort Bennington. She is afraid that the frontier life will be too much for her ailing husband; and her fears are confirmed when he is captured by the French while on a trading expedition. When William's double-crossing brother refuses to help her, she sets off on her own to rescue her husband and is joined by Hawkeye. But treachery is all around them, and they will have to forge a strong friendship to survive the many hardships that await them in a land at war.