Pi Patel, having spent an idyllic childhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper, sets off with his family at the age of sixteen to start anew in Canada, but his life takes a marvelous turn when their ship sinks in the Pacific, leaving him adrift on a raft with a 450-pound Bengal tiger for company.

Pi survives a shipwreck with several animals and with intelligence, daring and inexpressible fear, manages to keep his wits about him as the animals begin to assert their places in the food chain. The plot contains graphic violence.