An aging hunter and adventurer Allan Quatermain, having lost his son and grown disillusioned with civilized England, gathers his old friends again—Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good—and sets out for the heart of Africa. Their goal is to find the mysterious white tribe living in isolation somewhere at the headwaters of an unexplored river. But on the way to the enigmatic people, the heroes face new dangers, battles, and an encounter with an ancient civilization no less brilliant and ruthless than the great empires of the past.