 The latter-day Mister (Joe) Moses (Robert Mitchum) is a snake-oil pitchman who is chased out of an African village and is found, literally, in the bull-rushes by Jude Anderson (Carroll Baker), daughter of missionary Reverand Anderson (Alexander Knox) who has learned that he is a diamond smuggler and threatens to expose him to her fiancé Robert (Ian Bannen); the district commissioner if he doesn t help lead an African native tribe to their new homeland. With the aid of a pitchman s accessories, including an ability to set fire to a bush, a friendly elephant and his carnival wagon, the schemer is forced to lead his newly found friends out of their settlement which is condemned to be flooded by a new dam.