A Handful of Dust follows the exploits of Tony Last, a contented but shallow English country squire, who, having been betrayed by his wife and seen his illusions shattered one by one, joins an expedition to a supposed lost city in the Amazon rainforest. On this adventure Tony engages in a shipboard romance with a young lady who shuns him after she learns of his misfortunes. Tony's guide proves to be incompetent and abandons him when he falls ill. Tony's luck seems to be turning when he gets rescued by a strange man in the jungle, but he soon realizes that he is trapped in a remote outpost as the prisoner.