Nathaniel Townsend, a colonial Army scout and undercover spy during the American Revolution, falls in love first with an Indian Princess and then a white settler. After the death of his parents by hostile Indians, he spends ten years living with an Algonquin subtribe on Long Island. Arandel, a pretty Indian Princess, also eight years old when introduced to him by her father, the famous Chief Tackapousha, teaches him the ways of the Indians. In a treacherous attack by the Narragansetts of Connecticut, Arandel is killed trying to save Nathaniel's life. To try to reconcile her death he becomes a whaler and learns to build whaling canoes and then to harpoon whales off the coast of Long Island. Eventually he is able to adjust to Arandel's death and then reunites with Jessie, the daughter of the owner of a successful ferry and fishing business. Because of his reputation as the "Golden Warrior," a white man with blond hair who heroically defended Chief Tackapousha's settlement against the attacking Narragansetts, he came to the attention of General George Washington, leader of the colonial Continental Army. Washington recruits him as a spy and undercover Army scout. In a plot to kill Washington, planned by the British in collaboration with a renegade subtribe, the life of the future first President of the United States will be in the hands of Nathaniel Townsend.