Grace Hampton is a nine-year-old orphan in 1676 Cochecho, New Hampshire. Her predictably mundane life is turned upside down when she overhears plans for an attack on local Indians, and then immediately afterward, she meets Menane, a nine-year-old Pennacook boy who is also orphaned. When disaster strikes, the children's lives are irrevocably meshed together. Thirteen years later, they reunite as adults. Grace has become an industrious cheesemonger while Menane has developed an honorable status as a warrior in his tribe. When Menane's brother Kancamagus seeks revenge for the attack on their people, Menane risks his own life to save Grace from the inevitable siege.