In his youth Siddhartha, a young Brahmin, is occupied with gods, sacrifices, and sacred teachings. He was, what one today might consider a Jesus Freak. However, he leaves these things behind and forges out with his childhood friend Govinda to lead a life religious self-discipline with the Samanas. Siddhartha learns to conquer his body senses, such as hunger, cold/heat, and others, but feels as if he had learned nothing. He and Govinda go in search of Gotama Buddha, whose teachings, they hear, are wonderful. When Siddhartha chooses to continue on his journey for spiritual oneness, Govinda remains behind as a follower of Gotama. He crosses a river that brings him to a lush and oasis like new land where he spends the next twenty years of his life in the pleasures of the flesh and all the concerns of the secular world. Siddhartha learns the art of love, although not love itself, from Kamala. He also learns how to make money from a businesswoman by the name of Kamaswami. What was at first an amusing game, to Siddhartha, turns out to be an overwhelming disgusting occupation. When Siddhartha has a dream about a bird in Kamala's golden cage dead, and that its dead body must be thrown out with everything good that is inside it, he decides to leave the world of Samsara for good. .
Siddhartha goes back to the river that he once crossed, and falls into a deep sleep, which reawakens him into the real world. Govinda, now a monk, guarded Siddhartha from snakes while he slept. However, he does not recognize his old friend. Siddhartha then becomes a ferryman's apprentice, but at the same time listens to the secrets of the river. He becomes a pupil of the ferryman known as Vasudeva, who lives by this river. Together the two old men grow very wise. One day, eleven years later, Kamala crosses the river with the son that she had by Siddhartha, in search of the dying Gotama. Kamala is bitten by a snake and dies in front of the ferrymen, but she dies in peace because she was, in fact, looking into the face of Siddhartha-who was a Buddha.
