A young boy lives in a small floating temple on a beautiful lake, together with an elderly master who teaches him the ways of the Buddha. Years later the boy, now a young man, experiences his sexual awakening with a girl who has come to the temple to be healed by the master. Returning from a disastrous trip to the outside world the young monk must pay penance and, in the last of four vignettes, he returns to the lake temple to find spiritual enlightenment.