An elderly English doctor and his 14-year old American nephew go on a perilous journey to Africa in an hot air balloon with an African guide, to retrieve a precious diamond from the top of a volcanic rock, as a gift for Queen Victoria.

An orphan endures a harsh life in a workhouse before fleeing to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin, and eventually finds a better life, exposing the cruelties of poverty and child labor in Victorian England.

This heart warming adaptation of the timeless novel tells the story of the courageous stallion Black Beauty, a well-bred horse in the 19th century England.