After he thwarts Alice's attempt to run away with Fletcher to North America, he forces her to marry Charles Leslie instead.
In despair, Fletcher decides to leave England and relocate to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he marries an orphan girl named Martha although he is still in love with Alice.
He receives word that Charles and Alice Leslie have both died, and that their children, who will be renamed Faith and Hope, will be coming to live with the Fletchers.
Most of the household is suspicious of Magawisca, especially since she occasionally talks to Nelema, an old native woman living nearby.
Digby goes away on an errand that Mrs. Fletcher insists on, and so Everell is left to defend the house in the event of an attack.
Mr. Fletcher returns with Hope Leslie to his home later from the coast several hours after the fight only to find his entire family dead or missing; he mourns privately for a few days, then begins to act normally.
Magawisca attempts to help Everell escape, since she does not agree with her father's capture of the two white children, but she is unable to do so.
The natives prepare Everell for sacrifice; Mononotto is thrilled at the brave spirit with which he fought the invasion at the Fletcher home, and believes that he is a fitting sacrifice to avenge the death of his own son in the Pequod War, who was interrogated by white settlers before being killed in cold blood.
Magawisca attempts to aid him, but is sent to an old woman's domicile and kept there by a stationed guard as the night wears on and the time for the sacrifice draws nigh.
A moonbeam strikes his face; the natives interpret this as a sign that the sacrifice has been accepted and exult in the moment.
As the final blow is about to be struck, Magawisca leaps from the large rock which she has secretly scaled into the path of the blade.
We later learn that Hope had that day received a visit from Magawisca, whom she had made plans to meet in the cemetery at 9pm that night.
On the way home from the lecture, Hope impatiently leaves her escort, Sir Philip, and takes a detour to the burial ground.
Nelema managed to tell Magawisca that Hope had saved her and wanted to repay her with a visit from her sister.
To facilitate her meeting with Faith, Hope arranges for the party to stay on an island belonging to Winthrop, of which Digby is the guardian.
He stops to take care of his father and while he does so, Hope escapes, but then runs into a group of sailors who chase her.
Esther has realized that Everell and Hope love each other and she decides to return to England for a few years and remain unmarried.
[2] The book was successful and critics compared it to James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, another early American novel.