Tepulpai, Tepulpai, a curious 10-year-old with a burning dream to become a Shaman, is denied the chance to join the village’s revered role of the Great One. The community’s luck darkens when an Incan tax collector arrives and confiscates the Huaca, the village’s most precious treasure, along with most of the crops, leaving the people hungry and desperate. Walumama, Walumama, the elder, faints at the loss of the statue, and Tepulpai’s anger hardens into a resolve: the Huaca must be recovered.
Tepulpai crosses a rope bridge to Cusco and reluctantly accepts the company of Naïra, who insists on joining him. Tepulpai is wary at first, but he agrees after she bravely crosses the bridge herself. In Cusco, they meet the Great Inca and are warned to think twice about their plan as they discuss a message from a dying chasqui about a floating house on the waters and beings from another world — “monsters” with metal skins that spit fire. He asks them to carry his warning. Tepulpai pockets the chasqui’s pututu and presses on toward the Great Inca.
The two children seek to relay the warning, but the Great Inca dismisses the tale as a lie from the Great Observer. Tepulpai, angered, challenges the authority, and the situation escalates when the so‑called “gods” arrive and attack, revealing themselves as thieves. They seize the Huaca, and the children narrowly escape into an abandoned house. Tepulpai uses Kirkincho, an armadillo, to confuse the thieves while [Naïra] returns the Huaca to the village. The thieves quickly realize Tepulpai never held the real Huaca, and a whirlpool drags them away.
Lost in an underground labyrinth, Tepulpai encounters the blind Great Observer and his puma, who offer food and shelter. The Great Observer explains that there is no easy escape from the maze and helps Tepulpai see that the Great Condor’s feather he once took was taken without permission. He quietly apologizes to the feather, and the wind carries it toward the exit, guiding Tepulpai out.
The Great Condor rescues the children, flying them back to the village while Kirkincho and Naira’s llama, Llamita, hurry back on their own. Tepulpai learns that the Great Condor is actually the Shaman, and the danger intensifies as the metal-clad intruders close in to steal the Huaca. The Huaca cracks under their assault, the crops are devastated by an explosion, and Walumama has joined the ancestors. In a final turn, Tepulpai discovers seeds hidden within the Huaca and offers them to Pachamama. As rain returns, the village joins in a celebratory dance, embracing a future rooted in renewal and hope.
