The story begins in Hadley, Massachusetts, where Ned Hawkins is warning the townsfolk to keep up with the rents owed to his father’s company, when they are interrupted by a Native American attack. Ned fights alongside Hope Russell, the daughter of the town’s pastor, but it’s only when Colonel William Goffe arrives that Hadley is saved. Goffe is a fugitive – one of the last remaining men who signed the death warrant of Charles I. Led by Ned and Hope he flees into the wilderness.