5000 years ago, in India, men started to capture and tame elephants for war, parades and worship. Still today, the young Makbul grows up in daily contact with the wild and domesticated elephants that live in the forest around his native village in southern India. Over the objections of his mother, Makbul follows in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, going deep into the forest to learn the age-old profession of the mahout, or elephant handler in the government's employ. When an elephant calf named Vikrama is born, the animal is placed under Makbul's care. The boy raises and trains the elephant, but when his father dies, Makbul now head of the family but too young to be hired by the forest department, must seek work in the neighboring villages, away from the elephants. The bond between Makbul and the life of his forebears is too strong, and as he passes into adulthood, his destiny of becoming a mahout is fulfilled