The story begins in England: a wicked uncle wants to latch on to the Mulligan heritage and has got to get rid of all the male heirs, one of them, the other is a sick child called Arthur-Remi was to be killed by the kidnapper who took pity on him and entrusted him to the Barberin's safekeeping in France. Safekeeping? If the woman (Mere Barberin) is a loving mom, who makes crepes for her fostered kid, her husband is a crude brute, whose affairs in Paris went wrong and left him an embittered man who does not want another mouth to feed, thus he sells Remi to a busker who takes the boy on all the roads of the country with his troupe of animals - three dogs and a monkey.