A man and his wife are left deserted on an island after the crew onboard the ship they are traveling on mutinies. With nothing but their luggage and some supplies, the couple must find a way to survive in the intense jungle environment. They hunt and gather food, but are never safe from the vicious creatures lurking in the jungle. Finding refuge and living in a treehouse, they end up having a son together, but soon after, Alice, the mother, dies, and the father is killed by a vicious gorilla. The baby is adopted by a grieving gorilla mother and raised amongst them as one of their own. He is named Tarzan.

As Tarzan ages, he starts to become confused about the obvious differences between the apes and himself. He begins to search for his true identity and discovers the tree house that he was born in. There, he finds books and weapons and he learns how weapons can be advantageous to him when he kills an ape with his biological father's hunting knife. After mischievous encounters with the African people, Tarzan collects more weapons, and kills the jealous ape leader, becoming the leader himself.

Everything changes though when a new group of people come to the jungle, including a woman that will turn his world upside down. Tarzan must decide whether to stay true to his ape family or to discover a whole new civilized world that he is completely foreign to.