IT IS 1757 and England and France are fighting for the claim of the New World. When the French attack the British fort at Lake George, a white scout, Hawk-eye, and his two Mohican companions, Chingachgook and Uncas, become entwined in a battle to save the daughters of Commander Munro. Following the waterways and shadowed tracks of the Appalachian forests, the woodsmen set forth on a journey—sometimes brutal and sometimes comical—into a territory where lives are paid for with blood and scalps.