[3][4] The film is based on the character of Mr. Moto created by John P. Marquand, and an original story by Norman Foster and Willis Cooper.

[5] Over the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia flies the airplane of aviatrix Victoria Mason, supposedly circumnavigating the world.

Already in Tong Moi, Mr. Moto is posing as an archeologist, and newsreel cameramen Marty Weston and Chick Davis are traveling up the river.

As Weston and Davis arrive at the crash site, Moto has discovered the flare that “caused” the accident.

At the temple of Shiva, Weston and Davis are pronounced guilty and are about to be thrown into a pit when an elderly guru appears.

The following day Moto offers to pay the cameramen for images of the interior of the temple.

Later at a feast held in honor of the visitors, Moto is served the cooked bird on his plate and the Rajah reveals that he got the message.

In his cabin, Moto is marking the secret ammunition cache on a map of the temple when one of Bokor's men comes in to kill him.

Bokor begins searching Moto's cabin but is interrupted by Mason, who finds the hidden map.

All ends well with Mason and Weston beginning a romance and Davis planning on becoming Moto's assistant.

Davis faints when Moto tells him that his next assignment is to capture a murderer living on a volcanic island as the guest of headhunters.