In late 19th-century colonial India, two former British sergeants, Peachy Carnehan and Daniel Dravot, decide to leave the army to pursue an impossible dream: to reach remote Kafiristan and become king of a people who have never seen Westerners.

Through hostile mountains, warring tribes, and unexplored territories, the two adventurers actually manage to win the trust of the inhabitants, to the point of being revered as divine figures. But ambition and the illusion of omnipotence transform their quest into a spiral of deception, betrayal, and fateful choices.