In 1757, during the French and Indian War in the Adirondack Mountains, British Army Major Duncan Heyward arrives in Albany and is tasked with escorting Colonel George Monro's two daughters, Cora and Alice, to Fort William Henry. Along the way, the party happens upon a frontiersman named Hawkeye, the adopted son of the Mohican Chingachgook, and the fates of their families become intertwined as the war and the Huron war captain, Magua, threaten to destroy them.