Plot summary

Set in 1930s Cambodia, two tigers were separated as cubs after the ancient temple in which they were living was disturbed by Aidan McRory.

Prior, the cubs are playing when Sungha gets too close to a badger kit. The cub chases the kit into his burrow and his mother comes out and scares Sungha up a tree. The Kumal comes and scares away the badger and calls his brother out of the tree where the leaves stick to the sap on his paws ( from climbing the tree ). Their mother comes to get them when she hears gunshots and picks Sungha up. Kumal follows, but cannot jump as high as the mother can so is trapped. The father tiger finds him but is shot.

McRory, an unscrupulous explorer, big-game hunter. and temple looter, killed the cubs’ father. One of the cubs, Kumal, is immediately recovered by McRory who befriends it, but he is arrested for stealing from an ancient temple and Kumal is fist kept by the chief in the Cambodian villiage that McRory stays in while hunting for statues. Later on, Kumal is sold to a circus where he is going to be the star attraction.

The other, Sungha, remains in the jungle with his mother, but both are eventually stalked by McRory as game for a vain Khmer prince to hunt. The mother is shot in the ear and thought to be dead for a moment before running away. Her cub Sungha is caught and ends up as a pet to young Raoul, son of the French administrator, Normandin.

Kumal, meanwhile, is being trained by the cruel circus ringmaster Zerbino to do tricks, such as jumping through a flaming hoop. Sungha becomes too wild ( after, in a fright, he seriously hurts Raoul’s dog ) to remain in the French household, and he is made a part of the prince’s palace menagerie.

Then the prince decides to hold a big festival in which a battle between two great beasts – the brother tigers – is to be the centerpiece.

When placed in the cage together before the audience, the two brothers do not immediately recognise each other, and Kumal is afraid to fight. However, when the brothers do finally recognise each other, instead of fighting they begin to play together, much to the annoyance of the audience and the owners. The trainer attempts to antagonise the tigers into fighting, but as he opens the cage, the tigers escape, managing to frighten the trainers and the audience into the cage themselves.

The two brothers escape, but are hunted by McRory. After escaping through a fire ( Kumal teaches Sungha how since he learned in the circus ), McRory and Raoul find them. However, as McRory takes aim at one tiger, the other stands over McRory, who remembers the kindness McRory showed him. McRory puts down his gun and vows never to hunt again.

The two brothers make their way back to their temple home for a happy reunion with their mother who is still alive to find them.