In a tale exploring the limitations of language in understanding and describing the Holocaust, a novelist and a taxidermist collaborate on a play about a donkey and a howler monkey who have survived a genocide.
Possessing encyclopedia-like intelligence, unusual zookeeper's son Pi Patel sets sail for America, but when the ship sinks, he escapes on a life boat and is lost at sea with a dwindling number of animals until only he and a hungry Bengal tiger remain.