The story follows the shepherd boy Santiago in his journey across North Africa to the Egyptian pyramids after he dreams of finding treasure there.

After Santiago sets out, he meets Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who tells him to sell his sheep so as to travel to Egypt and accomplish his "Personal Legend".

When they reach an oasis, Santiago meets and falls in love with an Arabian girl named Fatima, to whom he proposes marriage.

Together, they risk a journey through the territory of warring tribes, where Santiago is forced to demonstrate his oneness with the "Soul of the World" by turning himself into a dust storm before he is allowed to proceed.

[7] HarperOne, a HarperCollins imprint, produced an illustrated version of the novel, with paintings by the French artist Mœbius, but failed to convince Coelho "to consent to the full graphic-novel treatment".

The Alchemist's Symphony by the young Walter Taieb was released in 1997 with the support of Paulo Coelho, who wrote an original text for the CD booklet.

[13] A later London performance was visited by the producer Ashvin Gidwani who, finding it "verbose but colourful", decided to commission a new 90-minute version of the book from Deepa Gahlot for the Indian stage.

[15] In 2006, Mistaken Identity, a Singapore indie rock band, adapted the story of the novel into what they claimed was "essentially our attempt at writing a musical" and released the track as "The Alchemist".