Handlung

After learning about the opium being smuggled from India, Tintin heads over there in a plane he stole from an Arabic army that was in cahoots with the syndicate. Once he arrives there, he encounters Dr. Sarcophagus and asked him what has happened to him. Unfortunately the doctor isn't himself and is suffering from a poison that causes a him to go mad and not be able to think straight. Tintin had no choice but to seek medical help for the doctor, only to discover that there are syndicate members out to get rid of him.—J LeGault

Tintin flees the city in a military airplane pursued by others. To save himself he takes a dive and lands in India. There Tintin finds Sarcophagus who is painting the sign of Kih-Oskh on the trees. He has gone completely insane and thinks that he is another Pharaoh, Ramesses II.

Tintin and Sarcophagus are taken by an elephant to a local colonial outpost. Later, the mad Sarcophagus escapes and tries to kill Tintin with a knife. It is soon revealed that he was hypnotized by a local Fakir who wants Tintin dead. Some remarks by the Fakir lead Tintin to Zloty, a Hungarian writer, who explains that an international gang of drug smugglers is out to get rid of Tintin. At gunpoint, Tintin orders Zloty to give him the name of the gang's leader but, before he can, the Fakir, from outside the window, blows a dart tipped with Rajaijah juice at Zloty, causing Zloty to go mad.

Tintin takes Sarcophagus and Zloty to the asylum with a letter from a local doctor, but the Fakir has substituted the letter and through a misunderstanding Tintin ends up imprisoned. He escapes by jumping on an obese inmate and over the wall. Snowy is unable to keep up with Tintin and is almost sacrificed by angry Indians for frightening their holy cow. The little dog is saved by Thomson & Thompson, acting as Nataraja. They then use Snowy to track down his master, whom they are still determined to arrest.

Tintin's escape from the asylum is reported and he is recaptured at a train station. The ambulance taking him back to the asylum crashes into the car driven by Sarcophagus and Zloty. Tintin escapes and later meets the Maharajah of Gaipajama. Over dinner they hear music which the Maharajah believes is a warning that he will be driven insane like his father and brother were after the music was heard, due to their opposition to the drug cartel and its oppression of the local farmers.

Tintin arranges for a dummy to be put in the Maharajah's bed. That night the dummy is hit by a dart fired by the fakir. Tintin follows the fakir to the cartel's hideout which the Fakir enters using a hollow tree. The members within dress up in outfits that bear the symbol of Kih-Oskh and make them look rather like the Ku Klux Klan (as Tintin comments in the English edition). He manages to capture the gang which includes the Fakir, the Arab colonel and several others he met in the course of the adventure. He is later joined by the Maharajah, Snowy and the Thompson twins who tell Tintin that all charges have been dropped: the tomb of Kih-Oskh was found by the Egyptian police and contained evidence of Tintin's innocence and a map showing them to the hideout.

The Fakir manages to escape, however, and later he and the cartel's Grand Master kidnap the Maharajah's young son. Tintin chases them into the Himalayas, but they send their car of a cliff, hoping Tintin will climb down, and they can steal his car. While the leader takes the bound and gagged crown prince, the Fakir tries to delay Tintin. However, the leader accidentally knocks a rock loose which knocks out the Fakir. Tintin recovers the prince, ties up the Fakir, and drives back with them. But the cartel leader falls off a cliff when the cliff edge he is on breaks. His body is not found.

Later, the Maharajah informs Tintin that one of the captured members of the cartel was a servant of his. In examining cigars found in his room, Tintin discovers that cigars bearing the "Kih-Oskh" label contain heroin, revealing how the cartel smuggled drugs. The story is continued in The Blue Lotus.