When the vet forgets to close the lion's cage, the lion escapes from the zoo. Despite being harmless, his presence causes a mass panic until he befriends a girl called Pips.
While spending some time at the island of their father and uncle, Pips and her brother Kim become friends with the trimmed cockatoo Ka when he's washed ashore in a box. However, a storm soon drags Ka back to the open sea.
Kim and Pips reunite with the lion on their way to rescue Ka, who has shipwrecked on a jungle island and got captured by the natives Nenemama, Nenepapa and Nenekiki who want to eat him.
Kim and Pips make trip to a foreign country to stop the sultan from capturing the lion. They learn of a conspiracy to usurp the sultan's throne by feeding him to the lion.
The sultan gets locked up with the lion, but the lion spares him when he learns that he's a friend of Pips. Meanwhile, Kim and Pips learn that the grand vizier is behind the conspiracy.