In 1703 a young girl is kidnapped by Abenakis Indians from the English settlement of Wells, Maine and force-marched through dense forests to a settlement in Quebec. Adopted by an Abenakis family, she lives in a Jesuit mission for five years before her freedom is negotiated by a Catholic priest. She is caught up in the clash between the English Crown and the French King and their Native allies who are fighting a bitter and bloody battle for territory. At the age of seven, Esther Wheelwright becomes a pawn in the highly charged struggle between Protestant England and Catholic France for the hearts and minds of North America. To the French, she was a prize captive who had renounced the religion of her parents; to her Abenakis family, she replaced a lost child and to the English Puritans, she was a soul they could not afford to lose.