John, Lord Clayton, the heir to the 6th Earldom of Greystoke, and his pregnant wife Alice are shipwrecked on the African coast. John builds a home in the trees, and Alice gives birth to a son. Alice later grows ill from malaria and dies. While John is grieving her, the tree house is visited by curious Common chimpanzees, one of whom kills him. One female of the group, Kala (Tarzan), who is carrying her dead infant, hears the cries of the infant human in his crib. She adopts the nude boy and raises him as a member of the Mangani.