Two deserters of the French Foreign Legion called Hooft and Hugo flee into the jungles of Africa. Unfortunately, their former superior, Lt. Colonel Staquait, finds their tracks and vows to follow them to the ends of the earth. Tarzan rescues the deserters from the perils of the jungle and the duo begin taking advantage of the resulting hospitality. Jane, being suspicious of the parasitic pair and their fantastic stories, decides to turn them in, only to realize who the real criminal is.

Tantor drinks water from the river and gets ill. Tarzan, Jane, and the Professor go upstream to find out what's poisoning the river while Terk tries to save Tantor. Along the way, they lose their boat and get captured by a group of natives who blame them for poisoning the river.

Tarzan and Jane return from a trip to the Waziri village to find the Professor missing and his camp in ruin. Jane momentarily fears the worst, but soldiers on with Tarzan in an attempt to determine her father's whereabouts and condition—a pursuit impeded by the hordes of apparently mad animals, including Terk and Tantor, destroying everything in their path and pleading for the cessation of a mysterious, unheard ringing.

While the gang is setting up a surprise croquet game for the Professor, Jane encounters an ill-looking fawn. Upon touching the fawn, the soul of Queen La enters her body. Failing to return to Opar by herself, La turns to Tarzan, who senses something wrong right away. Instead, she turns to Dumont for help. Can the aid of Usula, the Waziri elder, bring Jane back before La retrieves her staff and brings Opar to life again?

Hugo and Hooft use Tarzan to help them gather special ingredients for their hot sauce. The sauce, with the guys' names on the bottle, becomes popular to the French Foreign Legion, and is brought to the attention of Lt. Col. Staquait. Staquait vows to re-capture Hugo and Hooft for deserting, and succeeds eventually, resulting in the duo being sent to the Cape Doom prison. Upon attempting to free his friends, Tarzan is also captured. Jane attempts to contact the Magistrate to free Hugo and Hooft legally.

A writer named Ed is in desperate need of some inspiration for his next novel. He finds it while walking down the street in the form of a newspaper article about Tarzan, "The Missing Link". He begins tracking down various leads to Tarzan's whereabouts, including Tarzan's friends and enemies. They all tell Ed of their first encounters with Tarzan, prompting Ed to head out into the jungle to find Tarzan himself.