In the late 1880s off the coast of Africa, a young couple and their infant son escape a burning ship and land on the unexplored rainforests of Africa, where they craft themselves a large treehouse in which to live using salvaged ship parts in order to survive. Meanwhile, a gorilla couple named Kerchaka and Kal are traveling with the rest of their group when their infant son is killed and eaten by a leopard named Sabora. The next day, the still-heartbroken Kal hears a distant child's cry and, following it, stumbles upon the treehouse. He enters the treehouse to find it trashed, and blood covered paw prints (as well as the corpses of the couple) on the floor. Kal rescues the baby from a still-hungry Sabora and returns with it to the rest of the group, but Kerchaka despises the girl for her appearance. Nevertheless, Kal decides to raise the girl as his own, naming her Tara.
