In prima parte, autorul scrie intr-un mod foarte jucaus cum sunt si de ce sunt animalele asa cum le stim azi (How the Camel Got His Hump; How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin; How the Leopard Got His Spots; The Elephants's Child). Ultima parte a cartii contine povestiri despre urmarile razboiului (The Gardener), despre aventurile eroilor sai in India Britanica (The Man Who Would Be King) sau despre rezultatele dezastruoase ale vrajitoriei folosite de om in incercarea de a salva viata fiului sau bolnav (In the House of Suddhoo).

""Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy." 

The Law, as quoted, lays down a fair conduct of life, and one not easy to follow. I have been fellow to a beggar again and again under circumstances which prevented either of us finding out whether the other was worthy. I have still to be brother to a Prince, though I once came near to kinship with what might have been a veritable King, and was promised the reversion of a Kingdom - army, law-courts, revenue, and policy all complete. But, today, I greatly fear that my King is dead, and if I want a crown I must go hunt it for myself.

The beginning of everything was in a railway-train upon the road to Mhow from Ajmir. There had been a Deficit in the Budget, which necessitated travelling, not Second-class, which is only half as dear as First-Class, but by Intermediate, which is very awful indeed. There are no cushions in the Intermediate class, and the population are either Intermediate, which is Eurasian, or native, which for a long night journey is nasty, or Loafer, which is amusing though intoxicated. Intermediates do not buy from refreshment-rooms. They carry their food in bundles and pots, and buy sweets from the native sweetmeat-sellers, and drink the roadside water. This is why in hot weather Intermediates are taken out of the carriages dead, and in all weathers are most properly looked down upon.

My particular Intermediate happened to be empty till I reached Nasirabad, when the big black-browed gentleman in shirt-sleeves entered, and, following the custom of Intermediates, passed the time of day. He was a wanderer and a vagabond like myself, but with an educated taste for whisky. He told tales of things he had seen and done, of out-of-the-way corners of the Empire into which he had penetrated, and of adventures in which he risked his life for a few days' food."