Private Jacob Murray, a 26 year old Pennsylvanian volunteer in George Washington's Virginia Provincial Militia, is scouting the Ohio Valley in May 1754, searching for a party of French troops encrouching on British soil.

Back home, Murray's wife and four children are taken captive, unsure if they will see him again.  This is the story of fractured lives, broken treaties and the stark realities of the struggles faced by early American settlers as they risked their lives to cultivate the young, formidable nation.