Tausi is a young girl in a fantastical tribal world similar to the Africa of several centuries ago. She is under the supervision of her seven parental aunts, her caretakers after the deaths of her mother and father. Tausi's aunts expect her to marry soon, but the girl is averse to the notion because she knows that they mean to suppress the magic Tausi may have inherited from her deceased mother, a revered witch known as the Bandit Queen. The girl goes in search of an escape plan away from her small village of Epoulu and her aunts' dominion. Realizing that there are no ways out from the village on any of the local boats, Tausi believes herself to be out of luck until a mysterious man, Master Abata, enters Epoulu in his caravan with his traveling circus. The circus contains three chained magical beings—the Jab Man, Okapi woman, and Jangu cat—that Master Abata captured. Tausi meets with the master, and he promises her to help her leave her village, on the condition that she brings him her mother's magical staff. Tausi insists that she has no magical capabilities and leaves, crestfallen. She returns to bargain with Master Abata, but instead finds the Jab Man alone. He speaks to her, insisting that she does have magical abilities and that she must dig deep within herself to encounter them. He also warns her: if Tausi were to escape with Master Abata, he would likely try to kill her or sell her to a brothel. The Jab Man provides a counteroffer. If Tausi can find her mother's staff by looking not with her eyes but with her spirit, and frees him using the staff, he will help her escape Epoulu. Tausi returns home, wary of whether she will be able to summon the magic necessary to retrieve the staff. But upon sitting down and focusing, she accesses an ancestral plane, where she communes not only with the spirit of her mother, but those of many female ancestors. They present her with the staff and an invisibility cloak. Under the cover of night, Tausi returns to the circus. She unchains the Jab Man, asking him if she can also unchain the woman and the cat. He consents. Upon unchaining the Okapi woman, the woman awakens and unleashes her fury on the village, starting a perilous fire that threatens to devour it and all its inhabitants whole. The woman burns Master Abata alive. Tausi asks the Jab Man what she must do to stop the fire. They make a new bargain to replace their old one: if the Jab Man helps Tausi quench the fire, he will no longer have to help her escape the town. He gives her the advice she needs to stop the fire and strip the woman of her magic, and she convinces him to take the Okapi woman with him, away from the village. Tausi is left with the Jangu cat. She rides away from the village on his back. As she is sighted by people, they announce that the Bandit Queen has come back.