 After being expelled from Harvard for criticising the food there, being jilted by his sweetheart s family, Langdon Towne gets drunk at the tavern and says some disrespectful things about the English in his old colonial hometown in New England, which is overheard and almost puts him in jail. So they decide to leave for the west. When they meet Ranger Major Rogers, he offers them a trip west with his Rangers where Langdon has the chance to paint Indians. But the military expedition against French allied Indians becomes a disaster. They re cut off from supplies, followed by French soldiers and hundreds of miles away from their own lines. An attack on the French Fort St. Francis is unsuccessful, although they achieve their military aim, they don t find food and Langdon is wounded. Almost starved, about 50 survivors of various further fights including Rogers, Langdon and Hunk come to their meeting point with the English troops for resupplying. But there s no sign of the English.