The action takes place around Glens Falls in upstate New York. Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, are traveling with a column of reinforcements from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry, where Munro is commanding an army. In the party are David Gamut the singing teacher, and Major Duncan Heyward, the group's military leader.
The Huron scout, Magua, offers to take the Munro party by a shorter route than that which the column must take. Unknown to them, Magua—who they believe to have been expelled from his tribe in disgrace—has been reinstated as chief of the Huron tribe and is a supporter of the French cause. Magua intends to lead the party into an ambush, but is foiled when they meet Natty Bumppo, also referred to in this novel as Hawkeye, and the two Mohicans, Chingachgook and his son Uncas, on the road.
