A fictionalized account centered on a real life incident is presented. It's 1904, and wealthy Americans Eden Pedecaris and her two adolescent children, William and Jennifer, living in Tangiers, Morocco, are kidnapped when their mansion is stormed in a violent invasion. The perpetrator of the incident is Mulay Achmed Mohammed el-Raisuli, a Berber sheikh. Raisuli, whose intentions are initially unclear, claims that he is working on behalf of Allah, and that he is not a barbarian in being educated. Beyond Raisuli's assertions, Mrs. Pedecaris is outwardly not afraid in believing that Raisuli, based on his actions and attitudes beyond his stated threats and some violent incidents to prove that he means what he says, indeed intends her and her children no harm. While the relationship between the Pedecarises and Raisuli shifts during the Pedicarises captivity, the nature of the situation changes in its entirety when Raisuli divulges his true intention with them, which has to do with Morocco's tenuous geopolitical situation especially in relation to multiple European colonializing forces wanting their hold on Morocco, and as US President
Theodore Roosevelt, seeking reelection, thinks that he can kill two birds with one stone in orchestrating the safe return of American citizens while hanging his reelection bid on the issue of the country's security.
—Huggo