From 1957 to 1964, Rouch observed the Gao hunters from the Yatakala region, and the film recounts episodes of the hunt in which technology and magic are intimately entwined: making bows and arrows, preparing the poison, tracking the animals, the death ritual. But the old killer lion known as the ‘American’ succeeds in escaping all the traps set and the Gao hunters only get to two of his females. After the hunt, the men tell their children the story of the ‘gaway gawey’, the fabulous lion hunt.