After beginning his new post, he becomes bored, depressed, disillusioned and overwhelmed by his life on the Mediterranean island; Nicholas struggles with loneliness and contemplates suicide.

While habitually wandering around the island, he stumbles upon an estate and soon meets its owner, Maurice Conchis, a wealthy Greek recluse.

Nicholas is gradually drawn into Conchis's psychological games, his paradoxical views on life, his mysterious persona and his eccentric masques.

Eventually, Nicholas realises that the re-enactments of the Nazi occupation, the absurd playlets after Sade, and the obscene parodies of Greek myths are not about Conchis's life, but his own.

It starred Michael Caine as Nicholas Urfe, Anthony Quinn as Maurice Conchis, Anna Karina as Alison, Candice Bergen as Lily / Julie, and Julian Glover as Anton.

The adaptation generally was considered a failure as film; when Peter Sellers was asked whether he would make changes in his life if he had the opportunity to do it all over again, he jokingly replied, "I would do everything exactly the same except I wouldn't see The Magus.

[8] In 2020, a new television miniseries adaptation of The Magus was announced to be in development at Neal Street Productions, with Johan Renck being looked at to direct based on a screenplay written by Tom Edge.