Wanting to learn if he can communicate with deceased loved ones, adventurer and trader Allan Quatermain seeks a meeting with the feared Zulu witch-doctor Zikali. He tells Allan he must seek out a great white sorceress who rules a hidden kingdom far to the north, and he charges Allan to take a message to her. En route, Quatermain encounters emigrant Scotsmen, cannibals, witch doctors, the beautiful Inez, and of course the mysterious She, or Ayesha.