This novel is based upon actual events of the 1640s in and near the Dutch village of Rensselaerswijck in the upper Hudson River Valley. Now known as Albany NY, the settlement was the center of the lucrative Dutch fur trade with the neighboring Mohican and Mohawk tribes, even as they warred with each other for control of that trade. Among the historical figures encountered are Harmen and Jelisje van den Bogaert, Isaac Jogues, Arent van Corlear , Johannes Megapolensis, and Adriaen van der Donck.The story is told by a young Mohican boy in a time when European diseases and war are creating chaos in the ancient cultures of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. Using his intelligence and imagination, he finds acceptance among the Mohawks and a new home with the family of the adventurous and bisexual Harmen van den Bogaert. When Harmen faces execution for a crime the Dutch term unspeakable, Matouac and a young slave girl named Catharina set out to save their friend.