Following a mutiny on the high sea, an aristocratic British couple, John and Alice (Rutherford) Clayton, Lord and Lady Greystoke, find themselves abandoned by mutineers somewhere on the West Coast of Africa. During the battle for survival, a baby boy, John Clayton, was born but the couple couldn't survive the hostile African jungle, and die leaving the little boy orphaned to face his destiny. But, the boy is adopted and raised by a female ape, Kala, in ignorance of his human heritage. Later, he became known in the jungle as "tar-zan". He grows up in the African jungle cut from all civilization. Tar-zan only discovers his human heritage and makes contact again with the outside world of civilization, when another group of travelers are left abandoned by mutineers on the same West Coast of Africa.