Paul Bonnard (Rossano Brazzi) arrives in Timbuctoo in search of a guide to help him cross the Sahara in search of a lost city that his father, a missionary and archaeologist, has told him about. Joe January (John Wayne) is recommended to him as the best guide in the land, but the two clash when Bonnard also wants a ravishing slave girl named Dita (Sophia Loren) to accompany them. However they eventually all set off together, combating hostile Tuaregs, blinding sandstorms and intense rivalry between the two men for Dita’s affections before their water begins to run out and Joe decides to turn back. Just as he does, they stumble across a mythical city, but will it bestow upon Paul all the riches he dreams of, or rather some unexpected and unpleasant truths?

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