In March 1537, Fernao Mendes Pinto set out for India in search of fame and fortune. This film recounts the misadventures and successes of this writer who, during the twenty-one years he spent in the East, found that instead of the fortune he sought, his hardships and dangers only increased. Adventurer, pilgrim, penitent, ambassador, soldier, and slave, Fernao Mendes Pinto was all of these things and went everywhere. In the end, he returned safely and left us an extraordinary book of travels.