The book tells the story of Pi, a Tamil boy from Pondicherry, India, who is the son of a zookeeper. When Pi is sixteen, his family decides to move to Canada, where they will sell the zoo animals and start a new life.
On the journey, the ship carrying the family and their animals sinks, and Pi is the only human survivor. He ends up stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger.
The tiger, named Richard Parker, eventually kills and eats the other animals, but Pi manages to train him and the two of them survive together for 227 days.
When they are finally rescued, the authorities do not believe Pi’s story and instead insist that he must have killed and eaten the other animals. Pi is adamant that his story is the truth, and he sticks to it even when it means being sent to a psychiatric hospital.
In the end, Pi’s story is revealed to be true, and he is released from the hospital. The book ends with Pi reflecting on his experience and what it has taught him about life.