The storyline revolves around a 16-year old Indian boy named Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, who survives a shipwreck in which his family dies, and is stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Pi's father named him Piscine Molitor after a swimming pool in France. In flashback it was seen that his family owned a zoo, and Pi took great interest in the animals, especially a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Pi also mentions he teaches a course on Kabbalah at the University showing that he started to follow Judaism later in his life. When Pi is 17, his father decides to move the family to Winnipeg, Canada, where he intends to settle and sell the zoo animals.And he has to separat from his first love.They book passage on a Japanese freighter named Tzimtzum. One night there is a storm; the ship begins to founder while Pi is on deck. He tries to find his family, but a crew member throws him into a lifeboat. Pi watches helplessly as the ship sinks, killing his family and the crew. After the storm, Pi finds himself in the lifeboat with an injured zebra, and is joined by an orangutan. A spotted hyena emerges from the tarp covering half of the boat. The hyena kills the zebra and then the orangutan. Suddenly the tiger Richard Parker emerges from under the tarp, killing the hyena. Richard Parker then takes numerous swipes at Pi, practically running him off the boat; the tiger then devours the bodies of the other animals at night.
故事开始于蒙特利尔，也结束于蒙特利尔。一名在找寻灵感的作家无意间得知派·帕帖尔的传奇故事。派的父亲开了一家动物园。因这样特殊的生活环境，少年派对信仰与人的本性自有一套看法。在派17岁那一年，他的父母决定举家移民加拿大以追求更好的生活，而他也必须离开他的初恋情人。在后来举家迁往加拿大时，在船上他们遇见一位残忍成性的法国厨师，与他们同船的还有动物园里的一些动物，因为父亲打算把它们趁机以高价卖掉。然而货船中途沉没，派的家人全部遇难。

Weeks later and half dead, they reach a mysterious floating island of edible plants, supporting a mangrove jungle, fresh water pools, and a large population of meerkats. Both Pi and Richard Parker eat and drink freely and regain strength. But at night the island transforms into a hostile environment: the fresh water turns acidic digesting all the dead fish that died in the pools, Richard Parker returns to the lifeboat, the resident meerkats sleep in the trees, the plants are carnivorous. Pi discovers the island's secrets when he finds a human tooth. The next day, Pi and the tiger leave the island. The lifeboat eventually reaches the coast of Mexico. Pi is crushed that the tiger does not acknowledge him before disappearing into the jungle. Pi is rescued and carried to a hospital, weeping. Insurance agents for the Japanese freighter come to interview him. They do not believe his story and ask what "really" happened. He tells a less fantastic account of sharing the lifeboat with his mother, a Buddhist sailor with a broken leg, and the cook. The cook kills the sailor in order to eat him and use him as bait. In a later struggle, Pi's mother pushes him to safety on a smaller raft, and the cook stabs her as she falls overboard. Later, Pi returns, takes the knife and kills the cook.
日本货轮失事，派和救生艇被船上掉落的斑马砸进海里，他侥幸落在救生艇的舱盖布上得以生存。于是，他开始了在海上漂泊227天的历程，与他同时处在救生艇中的，除了那只断了一条腿的斑马外，还有一只鬣狗、一只猩猩以及一只成年孟加拉虎。由于动物园管理人员的失误，这只孟加拉虎注册了一个正儿八经的绅士的名字：理查德·帕克。在救生艇上的最初三天，鬣狗咬死了斑马，咬死了猩猩，理查德·帕克又杀死了鬣狗。接着，17岁的少年派海上生存的故事便这样开始了，他由最初的与理查德·帕克相互提防，想要杀死对方的心理逐渐变为相互依赖，也变成了派生存下去的一种动力。