In 1824, heartbroken American adventurer Josiah Harlan arrives in British Colonial India to reinvent himself. Leveraging Masonic connections, he becomes a spy in the “Great Game” and ruthlessly navigates imperial treachery to achieve the impossible: becoming a King in Afghanistan.

Based on the true story of an American adventurer who inspired Rudyard Kipling's masterpiece "The Man Who Would be King."

SYNOPSIS:

Our story begins in 1826, Ludhiana. Under a pale moon, American adventurer Josiah Harlan, dressed in Afghan robes, infiltrates a walled compound. He is greeted by Mullah Shakur and led to the exiled Afghan King, Shah Shujah. Harlan, a former East India Company (EIC) medic and soldier, proposes a daring strategy to restore Shujah to the throne in Kabul without British forces, claiming he can depose the ruler Dost Mohammed Khan through subversion rather than force.

We flashback to two years earlier in Guangzhou (China): Harlan wins a duel against British Lieutenant Thompson by shooting the pistol out of his hand. Challenged to a rematch, Harlan refuses, intent on catching his ship. At the riverfront, he declines a lucrative partnership with merchant Samuel Russell, determined to return home to marry and settle down.

In a stopover in Calcutta as the monsoon strikes, Harlan receives a letter revealing his fiancée, Elizabeth, has married another man. Devastated, he smashes her gift and decides to stay in India. He settles into a boarding house and reconnects with Hari Kumar Tagore, a clerk in a trading company, asking for an introduction to the wealthy merchant Ramdulal Dey.

Harlan spots Emily Holmes at a tavern and feels an immediate connection. Later, he meets Ramdulal Dey, who is friendly but refuses to hire a foreigner due to social pressure. Dey suggests Harlan meet the American trade representative, Duncan Ingraham. Harlan meets Ingraham, a coarse opium dealer, who threatens Harlan, believing he is a competitor sent by Russell. Harlan refuses to be intimidated.

In Tank Square, Harlan intervenes to assist when Emily Holmes defends a young servant boy being beaten by a British indigo planter; they bond over their shared moral outrage.

Later, two grifters, Peachy Carnahan and Daniel Dravot, try to intimidate Harlan on Ingraham's behalf. Harlan fights them, but they bond after realizing they are all Freemasons. They discuss the "Great Game" involving Russian spies and the potential to be kings in Afghanistan.

Harlan exacts revenge on Ingraham by defacing his paintings and stealing his liquor and cigars. He solidifies his alliance with Carnahan and Dravot.

Harlan visits Fort William to meet Lt. Col. Vaughan. Using the Masonic code phrase "Is there help for a widow's son?", Harlan initiates a new chapter, moving from a trader to a player in the geopolitical shadows of the British Raj.

AMERICAN KING