Two British soldiers stationed in 19th-century India are shocked to learn their comrade-in-arms is planning to quit the service and get married. However, their efforts to keep him in the army have to wait when a fanatical cult launches an uprising, leaving an unassuming water carrier with the task of saving the day. Action adventure, inspired by Rudyard Kipling's classic poem, starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Joan Fontaine and Sam Jaffe.

British army sergeants Ballantine, Cutter and MacChesney serve in India during the 1880s, along with their native water-bearer, Gunga Din. While completing a dangerous telegraph-repair mission, they unearth evidence of the suppressed Thuggee cult. When Gunga Din tells the sergeants about a secret temple made of gold, the fortune-hunting Cutter is captured by the Thuggees, and it's up to his friends to rescue him.