Fifteen-year-old Adam Turner awakes to a violent attack by vengeful Western Delaware warriors on his family's quiet homestead on the Pennsylvania frontier. He somehow escapes but knows nothing of the fate of his loved ones. Befriending a former slave named Peter and another local farmer named Thomas who has lost his family in the attacks, Adam finds refuge with other Pennsylvanians in the town of Carlisle and ultimately joins an expedition to exact retribution on the Western Delaware village of Kittaning. He and his two friends then join up with the legendary Rogers' Rangers in the Province of New York theater of operations and take part in the growing maelstrom of the French and Indian War. Learning the trade of special woodland warfare, Adam soon discovers that one member of his family--his older sister, Mary--still lives but is held captive by another native tribe far to the north behind enemy lines. Thus, Adam and his comrades, aided by a courageous Mohawk scout named Gray Hawk, determine to travel into the unknown to rescue his sister and bring her back to the life and world she once knew.