Doctor Burnet, a scholar of ancient history at the British Museum, is obsessed with finding the legendary and priceless Golden Mask of Moloch, believed to be buried in the lost tomb of a Roman general somewhere in the Algerian desert.

Unknown to them, Burnet and Chapman are accompanied on their flight to Algiers by unscrupulous fortune hunter Petris and his sidekick Kress, who are just as keen to get their hands on the mask, but in their case purely for financial reasons.

On arrival in Algiers, Burnet meets up with his daughter Anne and her boyfriend Jacques, whose father is the curator of the local museum of antiquities.

The Burnet party sets out across the Sahara by camel and are beset by dangers including windstorms and attacks by hostile desert nomads.

"[3] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This film is notable for its wealth of local colour – the beggar children, the oasis villages, native arts, camels, and desert storms, not to mention a stirring fight between a redcoated army patrol and the bandits force, which is given weight and excitement by its musical score and skilful cutting. ...