While the commander of the British Army in Arabia, Major J. W. Courtney, is out in the desert chasing marauding tribesmen, his wife carries on an affair with Captain Randall. Courtney returns to the outpost ahead of time and the wife takes refuge in the quarters of Lieutenant W.B. Lawrence. Lawrence, maintaining the silence (and stiff upper lip) that his code of honor dictates is drummed out of the service. He joins the forces of El Rahman and becomes a sheik of the desert. Warfare, instigated by Randall, breaks out between the troops and the tribesmen and ends when the mortally wounded Randall confesses to his dastardly deeds, the least of which included making love to his commander's wife.