An animal-obsessed child, Pip, moves from his home in Nairobi to London to live with his aunt Julia, in order that he can attend Grammar School. Unaccustomed to the British niceties he encounters, Pip is more attracted to the Zoo and the Circus in his neighborhood. One day, playing truant from school, he journeys to the Zoo on his own to see a a rare animal that has just been moved there. Pip kidnaps the animal.