Trekking through African jungles, explorer Rod Bedford and his companion, Joe Marks, are captured by a wild cannibal tribe. Kimpo, a young white boy, whose presence in the jungle is as mysterious as his immunity from the savages is strange, rescues them. The natives hold the boy in superstitious fear. Later, Bedford and Marks come to the camp of Alexander Marley, an archaeologist, who is blinded with fever and is tended by his daughter, Phyllis, and a man named "Brute" Hanley, who has been shipwrecked with them on the African coast. Marley has come to Africa seeking his other daughter, Helen, and her young son, who have been taken captive through the perfidy of a trusted aide to Helen's husband, another scientist. Marley dies but gives Phyllis and Bedford each half a map which will help them locate the savage Bougagou tribe, known as the "tiger men" and who have a great treasure.