When sixteen-year-old Pi Patel finds himself stranded in a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with only a menacing 450-pound Bengal tiger for company, he quickly realizes that the only way to survive is to make sure the tiger is more afraid of him than he is of it. Finding strength within himself, he draws upon all of his knowledge and cunning, battling for food and shelter, overcoming storms and disasters, and, in the end, making a peace of sorts with both tiger and ocean.