Corentin Feldoë lives in an old house in Brittany with his violent old drunk of an uncle. Tired of the beatings he is regularly subjected to, the young orphan decides to run away. He secretly boards a ship sailing for the Indies. Soon discovered, however, he is made second cabin boy to the Captain. But in the aftermath of a pirate attack, Corentin finds himself washed up on an island where he soon runs into a gorilla called Belzébuth and a tiger called Moloch.