The kidnapping of Tournesol and his imprisonment on the ship Pachacamac bring Tintin and Captain Haddock to Callao, in South America. Although Tintin manages to locate Professor Tournesol on the ship, he fails to free him. Tintin's suffocating surveillance by Indians leads him to the forgotten areas of the Incas where they discover the punishment awaiting Tournesol for committing, according to the Incas, sacrilege. The three friends are imprisoned and while they await their torturous execution, they are saved because the Indians apparently did not know the secrets of a simple solar eclipse...