After straying too far in the fields one day on an errand gathering herbs, Goldmund comes across a beautiful Gypsy woman, who kisses him and invites him to make love.

After seeing a particularly beautiful carved Madonna in a church, he feels his own artistic talent awakening and seeks out the master carver, with whom he studies for several years.

Finally, after being imprisoned for having an affair with the wife of the city governor and condemned to be executed, he is saved by and reunited with his friend Narcissus, now an abbot.

Like most of Hesse's works, the main theme of this book is the wanderer's struggle to find himself, as well as the Jungian union of polar opposites (Mysterium Coniunctionis).

[2] A film adaptation, directed by the Austrian Oscar-winning director Stefan Ruzowitzky and produced by the German division of Columbia Pictures, was released in 2020.