In The Pioneers, Natty Bumppo, forced by a local landowner to obey new hunting laws, rebels and finds allies in the landowner's daughter and a mysterious stranger. In The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye, a scout, leads a small band of Americans fleeing from the British and their Indian allies in the French and Indian War.

Natty Bumppo, now on the threshold of old age, finds his way of life challenged as the land he has roamed becomes private property and the laws of man supplant the laws of nature.