Young George Johnson lives an extraordinary life as the son of Sir William Johnson, one of the most powerful men in the Mohawk Valley of colonial New York, and Molly Brant, sister of Iroquois leader Joseph Brant. Georges sheltered life with his extended mixed family comes to a halt when the American War of Independence begins. His father is killed, his older brother Peter enlists, and the valleys inhabitants struggle with their loyalties. An attack by rebels forces George and his family to seek shelter with his mothers relatives, and the boy ends up in a Montreal boarding school. In a riveting climax, George, now 13 and back with his family, convinces his mother to let him join in a last raid on the valley where he grew up. In the process he experiences firsthand the brutality and futility of war, and struggles with what it means to be half-Mohawk. Based on meticulous research into actual people and events, this book brings to life a tumultuous time and those who lived in it, most memorably the indomitable matriarch Molly Brant.