When he is diagnosed with cancer, Italian writer Tiziano Terzani realizes that his whole life has been one long ride on a merry-go-round on which he has always journeyed without a ticket. Now, the ticket collector has come to demand his dues.At first, Terzani turns to Western medicine for a cure, but a question soon begin to haunt him: is cancer, as the doctor say, an enemy that needs to be destroyed, or is it a friend one can talk to? Travelling had always been a way of life for him, so he decides to make another trip, in search of an alternative – to India. This final ride turns out to be very different though. And more difficult. Because every step, every choice – often between reason and faith, between science and magic – is inextricably linked to his own survival. As he crisscrosses the country from an ashram in Coimbatore to a hut in Almora, the external journey in search of a cure transforms into an inner journey and a return to the divine roots of man.