Described in advertising as a 'mosaic in music and mime', this successor to Asche's immensely popular theatrical extravaganza Chu Chin Chow similarly unfolds around passion and poetry, love and hate, tender slave girls and ardent princes, delicate love, romance, and bacchanalian frenzy in the days of fierce intrigue and savagery.
The story concerns Ali Shar, a wrestler whose daughter Zummurud catches the attention of the young and handsome sultan (Al Malik-al-Nasir) during one of his trips (in disguise) through the city. Prince Nur-al-Din, a crafty villain who covets the throne, orders the death of his sister's child and tricks Ali Shar into attempting to kill the sultan in a wrestling match, by telling him that the sultan intends to add Zummurud to his harem. The sultan eludes Ali's killer grip and then orders the wrestler to make a pilgrimage to Mecca as an atonement. While on his way to Mecca, Ali falls in with a band of pilgrims who are taken prisoner by the prince, who has also taken Zummurud as his hostage. Pretending to be dumb, Ali enters the service of the prince's sister, Sharazad, and together they plot to rescue Zummurud and bring the prince to justice. Zummurud accidentally betrays her father, and he is sold as a slave. He is able to escape, however, and subsequently kills the prince. The sultan and Zummurud are then reunited.
Cairo incorporated ten songs into its narrative: 'From Bagdad We Come', 'Story of the Sphinx', 'My King of Love', 'A Fool There Was', 'When Love Knocked', 'Chinaman's Song', 'Hast Thou Been to Mecca', 'Dance Poem', 'The King of Nur-Al-Din', and 'Love in my Breast'.
