: Young and wealthy Frenchman Jean Grandier voluntarily travels to Africa to help the Boers in the war against the British aggressors, and creates a fighting squad. For courage Jean nicknamed "Captain Tear Off-Head."

Part one. Skimmers

Boer farm. The military court. British officers condemn the death of Boer David Potter for poisoning cavalry horses. A young man who appeared suddenly asks to postpone the execution for a huge bail, but the judges are adamant, and the Boer is shot. The young man leaves with Paul - the son of the murdered. Suddenly it turns out that the young man is a well-known Boer reconnaissance Jean Grandier, nicknamed "Captain Tear Off Head." The British begin the chase, but Jean and his friends manage to escape from the persecution.

There is an Anglo-Boer war. In a battle near the city of Ladysmith, the Boers defeat the British. They are captured by the Colonel Duke of Richmond - chairman of the trial of Boer Potter. Soon he was killed by Paul Potter, avenging his father.

Captain Torn-head during night reconnaissance is captured by the British and is imprisoned in a pontoon - a prisoner camp in the sea bay. At night, Tear-head jumps into the sea, teeming with sharks, and swims to the shore.He makes his way to Fort Simonstown, accidentally finds women's clothing there, and, putting on it, passes by the sentries into the city. There, he pretends to be a girl and settles in service to old Mrs. Adams.

Mrs. Adams receives news that her son, Captain Adams (another of Potter's executioners), is seriously injured. Mrs. Adams with her false servant go to the front, to the hospital to her son. When they arrive at Olifansfontein, where the hospital is located, Adams is already dead.

To the positions of the Boers is not far. Tear-head jumps on a horse left by someone and rides to the outposts of the Boers. Despite the shelling, he gets to the positions of the Boers and meets friends.

Part two. The fight of the giants

There is a battle under Kimberly. Despite the victory over the British, the Boer commander General Cronier does not give an order to catch up and finally defeat the retreating. At night, the Boer camp falls under the fire of an approaching English armored train. The Molokosos detachment was instructed to blow up the bridge and the railway lines, which they are successfully carrying out. Boers capture the armored train and its crew. Surrendering, the English captain brazenly shoots the drill, and the captain Tear-head kills him. This murdered Englishman is Captain Harden, who tried David Potter.

Cronier sends a torn head with a secret letter to General Joubert. The most convenient way to do it is on bicycles. Tear-head takes with him his companion Fanfan. Having destroyed a whole detachment of English lancers along the way, having gone through enormous difficulties, they achieve their goal.After resting, friends go back to Cronie with a response letter from Joubert.

Cronier’s army stands in Magersfontein. A large army of the British gradually bypasses the Boers, surrounding them. Cronier does not believe in the possibility of being surrounded and does not take any action. Soon the Boer army was surrounded, and the British began a massive shelling. After a week of resistance, the Boers give up. Jean Grandier, Fanfan and Paul Potter are captured by the British. Suddenly, the company commander of the Canadians, François Junot, recognizes his old friend Jean Grande and, from solidarity with his compatriots, the French, helps them escape from captivity.

When crossing the river, Paul suddenly disappears. Torn-head and Fanfan collide with five Englishmen and they capture them. The detachment is commanded by Captain Russell, the next executioner of David Potter. Roussel orders to hang Captain Sorvy-head and Fanfan, but at the last moment Paul Potter appears in English uniform and shoots all the soldiers, not allowing them to execute. Friends hang captain Russell and leave for the Boer army.

Part three. Dynamite war

The command instructs the captain to tear the head to blow up the Taba Ngu reservoir, controlled by the British. Jean Grandier, Fanfan and Paul, under the guise of the shepherdesses who led to the watering hole, approach the reservoir. While Paul is distracting the soldiers, his friends lay dynamite in the walls of the reservoir. After they leave, the reservoir explodes. The British Lancers set off in pursuit of saboteurs, but the Skins kill them, and the three survivors are forced to change into the clothes of the shepherds and drive back.

Scouts return to the farm where they were located earlier. There are also several of their comrades in arms.Suddenly a detachment of English surrounds the farm. The shootout begins. Tear-head thinks of how to break out of the environment. The besieged tied dynamite cartridges to the horns of cows, set fire to cartridges and try to drive the cows to the British, but the cows refuse to move. And then the old mistress of the farm with her daughters lure animals from the farm and die under their hooves. Cows run out, dynamite starts to explode. The British are crushed and discarded.

The scouts set the farm on fire and leave, after which they encounter British lancers and defeat them in a heavy battle. The pluck head decides to go reconnaissance at the enemy camp, and orders its fighters to make their way to the Boer army.

In clothes taken from a dead English soldier, he penetrates the camp under cover of night. Seeing everything that was needed, he tries to sit on one of the horses and drive away, but a restive horse dumps him, and a noise rises in the camp. Tear-head hiding in a large officer’s tent and sees Major Colville, the last surviving executioner David Potter, known there. He ties sleeping Colville, before hitting him on the head with his pistol, and leaves the tent. The batman of the major notices him and raises an alarm. Tear off the head again has to hide.

In order to successfully leave the camp, he buys several bottles of whiskey in the shop and distributes to the patrols on his way. Already at the exit from the camp he again attracted attention by killing a soldier who was trying to detain him. Anxiety raises again, but Tear-head successfully escapes from pursuit on a horse and gets to his own.

Once on the Blesbukkfontein farm appears a detachment of Major Colville's Lancers and brutally destroys all residents of the farm.The detachment of the captain of the Torn-head, who arrived in time after that, kills the British, including Colville.

The Boer army, under pressure from the British, was forced to leave the Baal River. The crossing is difficult, and the British are close. “Skimmers” are taken to detain them and almost all die. Among the advancing again is François Junot and takes the wounded Jean and Fanfan from the battlefield.

A few months later, Jean Grandier wrote a letter to his sister from Cape Town, saying that he and Fanfan were in the infirmary under the strict supervision of the British, but still try to escape in order to continue to fight for freedom.