In the third installment of the Leatherstocking Tales, Cooper takes his main character, here called the Pathfinder (Natty Bumppo) and examines his role as an explorer for British/Colonial forces in the forests and islands around the Great Lakes. The story is a classic historical adventure/romance and Bumppo falls in love, for the first and only time in the five novels, only to see his choice fall in love with another man – a younger man and good friend of Natty's. The Pathfinder remains a classic and entertaining account of the American wilderness and of aspects of human experience in the New World. Probably the best of the five Leatherstocking novels.