The dreaded slave hunter Abu el Mot attacks the caravan and abducts the travelers, including Kara Ben Nemsi, his faithful companion Hadschi Halef Omar, the quirky scholar Ignaz Pfotenhauer and the English explorer Sir David Lindsay. Kara Ben Nemsi manages to escape with Hadschi Halef. To get help, they set off on a long journey full of impassable adventures...

In the ruins of Nim Bis Rub, in Babylon, is a band of smugglers den. There goes Nemsi Kara Ben and his faithful friend. One night, while camping, they surprise three smugglers and, after a hard-fought struggle, manage to reduce them and take possession of the rings that are their trademark. Then they go to Baghdad and there, a character who wears a ring of smugglers, which has seen Kara's, confuses him with one of the band.