India 1820. An officer of the British East India Company, against all opposition, tracks down a gang of religious thieves and murderers.

The following statement regarding the story prior to the opening credits: 'For hundreds of years there existed in India a perverted religious sect, dedicated to the wanton destruction of human life..... ... so secret was this savage cult that even the British East India Company, rulers of the country at the time, was unaware of their existence....'

The following statements appear at the end of the film: '... in the end, over one thousand thugs were tried and convicted of cold-blooded murder... ... the innocent victims totalled over a million (one thug alone claimed seven hundred)... ... Major General Sir William Sleeman, the officer of the East India Company actually responsible for their capture, wrote of his fellow officers: "If we have done nothing else for India, we have done this good thing" '