婴儿约翰·克莱顿父母双亡,被母猿卡拉抱走。在卡拉抚养下,婴儿长大成人,视卡拉如生身母亲,取名泰山,泰山在猿类语言中是“白皮肤”的意思。泰山成为人猿之王。人类对森林袭击,卡拉丧生,泰山偶然救了比利时船长菲力普·达诺特。船长根据泰山颈上的项链,发现他原来是格雷斯托伯爵庄园的合法继承人,就把他带回英国。泰山逐渐学会了绅士应有的仪表风度,并与简·波特小姐订婚。泰山对博物馆中的动物标本感到震惊,他目睹自己的人猿“父亲”被人开枪打死,不愿再在文明社会中生活下去。最后,泰山告别心爱的未婚妻和好友达诺特船长,重新回到他的家园非洲丛林。A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. The mother dies soon after. An ape enters the house and kills the father, and a female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captaine Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.