Three good-natured chicken-catchers, Csülök, Tuskó Hopkins and Senki Alfonz, make up the small team that came together with the aim of saving the honor of a French naval officer, Captain Laméter, preventing the invasion of a small African kingdom and - not to mention - finding a lost diamond mine. Csülök, who tells the adventurous story, receives an important message from time to time from Szultán Török, who fills his letters with stylistic and spelling feats worthy of Fülig Jimmy ("Dear Tsülögg! You cool horse you are..."), Tuskó Hopkins becomes a centurion, and Alfonz Senki becomes a gentleman. Meanwhile, the superior of the foreign legion, Sergeant Potrien, tries to carve the perfect soldier out of the recruits who seem to him to be "camels with rheumatism" and "lively laundresses" who, according to him, "came here by accident because their family doctor told them that Fort St. Therese has the institute for fools..."