The story tells of two anthropomorphic bears, Popol and Virginia, who travel into the Wild West to sell hats, facing opposition from a tribe of hostile Native American rabbits and a criminal bulldog named Bully Bull.

[1] Using technology that is more advanced than the Bunnokee's bow and arrows, Popol defeats the rabbits' initial attacks, but they retaliate by abducting Virginia and threatening to torture her.

[2] They are captured by the gangster Bully Bull the anthropomorphised bulldog, and although they escape once, he recaptures them, before Bluebell kicks him so hard that he flies into the air and lands in Santa Barbara, where he is found and imprisoned by a sheriff.

In December 1931, Hergé produced Tim-L'Écureuil, Héros du Far-West ("Tim the Squirrel, Hero of the Far West") for L'Innovation, a large department store in Brussels.

[11] Hergé re-used plot elements from this in The Adventures of Tom and Millie, a strip about two bear cubs which was commissioned by the weekly Vie Herueuse for their supplement, Pim and Pom, in early 1933.

[15] During the German occupation of Belgium in the Second World War, Casterman suggested that Hergé oversee a Flemish translation and publication of Popol et Virginie au pays des Lapinos.

He later asserted that this decision had been due to the fact that the story involved arms dealers, and that in the political climate of the time this theme could "cause us problems if not the outright refusal of permission to publish.

[14] Tintinologist Philippe Goddin also commented on the perceived adult elements of the story, which included advertising, fashion, financial failure, profit taking, economic boycotts, and protectionism.