- Michael "Beau" Geste leaves England in disgrace and joins the infamous French Foreign Legion. He is reunited with his two brothers in North Africa, where they face greater danger from their own sadistic commander than from the rebellious Arabs.—Marg Baskin <marg@asd.raytheon.ca>
- An army of the French Foreign Legion crosses the desert to the relief of Fort Zinderneuf, at a desert oasis. The major approaches the men on the walls and hails them, but they do not respond. He realizes that they are all dead, some shot in the head. He sends his bugler into the fort, but the man does not return. Entering the fort, he finds no life, and the fort's commander apparently bayonetted by one of his own men, also dead, who has a letter referring to a stolen sapphire. The major leaves the fort to get help, and on returning, finds that the body with the letter has vanished. After he leaves, the fort catches fire and burns to the ground. We then flash back twenty years or so to the young Geste brothers, Michael "Beau", Digby, and John playing war games at a country estate. They live with their aunt, Lady Patricia Brandon, who has been abandoned by her husband. They are visited by Major de Beaujolais, who entertains them with stories of the Foreign Legion. Years later, the grown children are at the estate when a letter from Lady Brandon's husband comes, demanding that she sell the "Blue Water" sapphire, as he needs money. They get the sapphire out from its safe. The lights suddenly go out, and when they return, the jewel has vanished. In the night, all three of the Geste brothers leave, each claiming that they were the one to steal the jewel.
In Algiers, the training ground for the French Foreign Legion, the brothers meet up. They clash with their commanding officer, Sgt. LeJaune, and are separated. Beau and Digby end up at Fort Zinderneuf, while John is assigned to de Beaujolais. The brothers are treated cruelly by Sgt LeJaune, who is sure that they possess the stolen jewel. But just as the soldiers are contemplating a rebellion, there's an attack by Arab horsemen. Rallying the troops, LeJaune defends the fort, placing killed soldiers at the battlements to make the fort look occupied. In the following scenes, the mysterious happenings at the start of the movie are re-enacted from inside the fort, making all of the mystery clear.
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