While traveling with his father's world-wide lecture tour, nine-year-old Indiana Jones encounters an ancient mummy and a fresh corpse at an archaeological dig in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings. After solving the mystery, with help from Lawrence of Arabia, Indy is kidnapped by slave traders and taken across the Sahara to the slave market at Marrakech, where all his newly-honed wits are needed to escape.

While visiting Russia on his father’s lecture tour, Indy runs off on his own and meets Leo Tolstoy. Later, on a trip to Athens, Indy and his father are forced together by circumstance when they get into a bind in the monasteries of Meteora, where they share some memorable moments.

The elder Jones's lecture tour takes parents and son to India, where Indy explores the meaning of faith in oneself with Theosophist philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. Then, when Indy falls victim to typhoid fever in China, his mother must have faith and trust that the villagers' ancient medicines will save him.