At a national park in Kenya, English game warden George Adamson and his wife, Joy, care for three orphaned lion cubs. After the two larger lions are shipped off to a zoo in the Netherlands, the smallest of the three, Elsa, stays with the couple. When Elsa is blamed for causing an elephant stampede in the nearby village, head warden John Kendall demands the young lion either be trained to survive in the wilds of the Serengeti or be sent to a zoo.

When Elsa's three mischievious cubs begin wreaking havok on the nearby villages, Joy and her husband are forced to move them hundreds of miles to a game preserve.

When a game warden crashes in East Africa, his greyhound goes for help, only to find unexpected assistance from an aging lion.