Filmed entirely on location in Ceylon, the series is based on the Rudyard Kipling story "Toomai of the Elephants." Toomai and his younger brother Ranjit remain on the Namanpur game reserve where their father, a mahout to one of ihe working elephants, has been killed in an accident. Toomai is given charge of Kala Nag, the elephant his father worked, and given a chance to prove himself a capable mahout.