In 1946 Alec Ramsey is aboard the steamer Drake off the coast of North Africa, where he sees a wild black stallion being forced into a makeshift stable compartment and heavily restrained by ropes leading to his halter. Captivated by the horse, Alec later sneaks to the horse to feed him some sugar cubes, but he is caught by the horse's supposed owner, who tells him in Arabic to stay away from ''Shetan'' and shoves the boy away.
The story begins with several odd occurrences at the farm where the Black, Alec (Kelly Reno), and his mother (Teri Garr) live. A suspicious barn fire is followed by the theft of the horse. From the point of view of Ishak (Ferdy Mayne), the sheik who took him, this is property retrieval; the horse was originally his, and the Black's name is Shetan. Although he learns that the horse is being returned to the sheik's kingdom in the Moroccan desert, Alec goes after the sheik, stowing away in a plane to Casablanca.