A young botanist just out of the University is sent to Greece by the Museum of Paris to study the flora. In search of rare plants, he meets two English women, a mother and her daughter, on the path that leads to Parnès. All three were kidnapped by a band of brigands led by Hadgi-Stavros, "the king of the mountains," renowned for his cruelty. Faced with the refusal of the old English lady to pay the ransom, the botanist, enamored of her daughter, tried several times to escape.