Eliezer and Arrow St.
Clair have established a homestead and forge on the Hudson, near West Point.
An exiled Mohawk youth, Green-Star-Passes, takes refuge with them, along with his companion Willow Branch, an escaped Susquehannock slave-woman.
The once-distant troubles of the region come home when the nearby Dutch colony of New Amsterdam erupts in a civil war.
Eliezer and Arrow decide to resettle in Mohawk country, leaving the forge to Green-Star-Passes and Willow Branch.
A grueling boat-trip ups.