When Jane Parker unexpectedly arrives in Africa to visit her father, she also finds herself accompanying him and hunter Harry Holt on an expedition to a mysterious escarpment to find the legendary elephants graveyard and its treasure of ivory. Having reached the escarpment, they see a strange white man living in the trees like an ape. He promptly kidnaps Jane but means her no harm and he eventually sets her free, but not before her father and Holt kill one of the apes. When local tribesmen take Jane and her father prisoner, Tarzan comes to their rescue and causes a stampede through the native village. Jane is taken the mysterious ape man but she also feels it necessary to support her father, as she is all she has left in the world. In the end, she opts to make her life with Tarzan.

White hunter Captain Fry tries to take Tarzan back to civilization, caged for public display. He arrives in the jungle with Jane's cousins, Eric and Rita who want Jane's help in claiming a fortune left her.

In the first sequel to Tarzan, the Ape Man, Harry Holt returns to Africa to head up a large ivory expedition. This time he brings his womanizing friend Marlin Arlington. Holt also harbors ideas about convincing Jane to return to London. When Holt and Arlington show Jane some of the modern clothes and perfumes they brought from civilization, she is impressed but not enough to return. Tarzan wrestles every wild animal imaginable to protect Jane but when he disallows the expedition from plundering ivory from the elephant burial grounds, it is he who takes a bullet from Arlington's gun. Jane eventually believes that Tarzan is dead but he is nursed back to health by the apes. As Jane and the returning expedition are attacked by violent natives, we wonder if Tarzan can rescue them yet again.

A young couple die in a plane crash in the jungle. Their son is found by Tarzan and Jane who name him Boy and raise him as their own. Five years later a search party comes to find the young heir to millions of dollars. Jane agrees, against Tarzan's will, to lead them to civilization.

A scientific expedition happens to discover that gold exits on Tarzan's escarpment. The villainous Medford and Vandermeer kidnap Jane and Boy to extort from Tarzan the location of the gold. Everyone is captured by wicked natives. Tarzan and his elephants rush to the rescue.

Circus owner Buck Rand kidnaps Boy to perform in his show. He forces a pilot to fly him, Boy and his animal trainer out of the jungle. Tarzan and Jane follow them to New York. At a trial over custody of Boy, Tarzan becomes violent and is jailed. With the help of the pilot's girlfriend Tarzan (who has since escaped, diving off the Brooklyn Bridge) finds the circus. He and the circus elephants complete the classic rescue.