When two stowaways, Jeff Peters (Bing Crosby) and Orville "Turkey" Jackson (Bob Hope), accidentally cause a freighter to explode off the coast of North Africa, they float to shore on a makeshift raft, encounter a camel, and ride it across the desert to Morocco. Once there, they spend their time trying to get food without money until Jeff sells Orville into slavery for two hundred drachmas. Orville is carried away by his Arabian owner, and Jeff is unable to locate him. When someone directs Jeff to the palace at the end of a street, a note from Orville floats down from the wall, advising him that he is being tortured and that Jeff should give up the search and flee the city for his own safety. Jeff instead climbs the palace wall and finds his friend dressed like a prince and being "tortured" by the caresses of the Princess Shalmar (Dorothy Lamour). Orville is deliriously happy that Shalmar has chosen to marry him and resents Jeff's intrusion, but Shalmar immediately falls in love with Jeff and invites him to stay for the wedding.