The text was apparently expanded for book publication, as certain incidentals of the story reflect the political situation of Europe in the late 1930s rather than the mid-1910s.

Climbing aboard an empty lifeboat, he is rescued by a mad, epileptic old man piloting a tramp steamer.

Afterward she meets with Michael secretly, dissuading him from raiding her people and gradually teaching him how to speak and dress as an Arab, shoot, and ride a horse.

Eventually the Arab warrior Ben Saada, who desires Nakhla, discovers her meetings with Michael and informs her father.

The two proceed to separate the pair, the sheik by forbidding Nakhla to visit him, and Ben Saada by lying to Michael that she has married another and is no longer interested in him.

Hurt, he returns to the wild, determined to confront Nakhla; Marie, in parting, has told him she observed the Arab girl was not married, and reveals that Aziz, the name she had given him, means "beloved."

An emissary from Ben Saada arrives, offering to negotiate; the sheik refuses, and swears vengeance should any harm come to his daughter.

Prince Ferdinand becomes enamored of Hilda de Groot, the pretty daughter of the head gardener, but makes an enemy in her brother Hans.

An exile, Count Maximilian Lomsk, who wishes to return and is ambitious for Sarnya's position, is encouraged by Andresy to communicate with Ferdinand.

Through their machinations Carlyn is reinstated as a lieutenant in the army, which he hopes to parlay into a position of captain of the guard from which he can strike at the king and prince.

King Otto attempts to shore up the realm's faltering finances and counter Ferdinand's continuing liaison with Hilda by betrothing him to the wealthy Maria, princess of a neighboring country.

He sacks Sarnya, placing Maximilian Lomsk in his position, and makes Hilda lady in waiting to Queen Maria.

The queen, offended, returns to her own country, but by threatening to take her money with her forestalls Ferdinand from divorcing her to marry Hilda.

Ferdinand plans war against Maria's country, while Andresy plots a coup against the monarchy together with six army officers.

The Lad and the Lion was the first by Burroughs adapted to film, as a five-reel black and white silent movie released by the Selig Polyscope Company, premiering May 14, 1917, roughly simultaneously with the print serial.

The film makes Michael the son of an American millionaire rather than a European prince, dropping the parallel plot and focusing exclusively on the sea and African adventures of the lad and the lion.