1958, Genoa. A young German, Frederick Schultze Bookslow, is at the port waiting for a cargo ship to go far away, to India. He is twenty years old, has read Herman Hesse, and is eager to live and discover a different world. His partner doesn't want him to go, says she loves him, but then the ship takes a long time to arrive, she gets tired and returns to Germany. Frederick, on the other hand, waits and leaves, determined, on a long journey to Bombay.