Tintin and Tarrie follow a series of strange clues which lead them on the trail of a dangerous gang of drug smugglers. In their pursuit, Tinitin is locked up in the brig of Captain Haddie’s ship, the Karaboudjan, where the captain is under the influence of the bottle and under the thumb of his dastardly crew. With the scorching Sahara desert at one hand and the depths of the Mediterranean on the other, this adventure places Tintin and his friends in some dangerously dire straits.