A young Brahmin's son abandons home to seek spiritual truth, first embracing austere asceticism and later encountering an enlightened teacher but refusing to accept doctrine that cannot be personally experienced; he then sinks into worldly pleasures and material success, only to be driven to despair and return to a simple life by a river, where a humble ferryman teaches him to listen to the flow of life and, through patience and direct experience, to realize the unity of all things and find inner peace.