The god Indra sends his Daughter to earth to examine the human condition and the reasons for the constant complaining.

Indra’s Daughter finds a growing castle (a symbol of imposed authority) and asks a passing Glazier about its secrets. She enters it to release its solitary prisoner – an Officer who complains at having to work as an ostler. Filled with pity, she frees him from his prison.

The Daughter then finds herself outside a theater. The Stage Door Keeper is knitting the cares of the world into her shawl which the Daughter insists on wearing although she is warned it will be too burdensome. It is the end of the season and the members of the theater company live in fear of dismissal.

The Officer comes to meet his love, Victoria, whom no one has ever seen. He waits faithfully while his hair turns gray and his bouquet withers away. He discovers a strange door with clover-leaf shaped openings behind which he hopes he may find Victoria. It is about to be opened when the Law arrives and forbids the opening of the door. Everyone rushes away to consult the Lawyer.

In his office, the Lawyer complains how hopeless it is to deal with his clients’ problems in the face of their hatred for each other. Preoccupied with the approaching ceremony in the Cathedral where he is to receive a doctorate, he will not listen to the Officer’s demands for his help in finding Victoria behind the door.

In the cathedral, the Lawyer experiences his life’s greatest disappointment when he is refused a laureate and offered a crown of thorns instead. In despair he mimics the role of the crucified Christ until the Daughter leads him sadly away. His laughter can still be heard above the de profundis the congregation sings, seeking consolation in their faith.

Indra’s Daughter leads the Lawyer into Fingal’s Cave, far away from all his worries, but mankind’s lament can be heard even here. The Daughter feels she must now experience love, which the Lawyer considers to be the most sweet and most bitter gift of life.

In the Advocate’s house we find she has married him and given birth to a child, but the poverty-stricken and claustrophobic atmosphere of their home and their marriage threaten to stifle her. When the Officer arrives to rescue her from the prison of marriage, he too almost suffocates before they escape together.

Mistaking the way to Fairhaven, the Officer and the Daughter arrive on the opposite side of the fjord at Foulstrand, the quarantine establishment of the sick and rejected. Here she meets the Poet. A loving couple glides by in a sailboat: the Poet has hopes for Love’s delivering power, the Officer loses himself in memories of his Victoria while the Daughter appreciates mankind’s lament over life’s misery.

The Officer finds himself in school with several little boys. He is unable to solve the simplest arithmetical problems and his arguments with the Schoolmaster end in chaos.

Indra’s Daughter finds that even in the holiday paradise of Fairhaven there is suffering and unhappiness: a Pianist goes mad from unrequited love and the incredibly rich Blind Man, who owns everything in Fairhaven, loses his son to the sea. The Poet utters bitter accusations against God and the world in general.

The Daughter leads the poet deeper into Fingal’s Cave. Here in the “ear of Indra” the winds too sing their lament. Here are found the remnants of the hopes of man: flotsam from sunken ships thrown up by the sea. Here too is the prow of the ship on which the Blind Man’s son set sail from Fairhaven. In her distress, the Daughter asks the Poet if she is dreaming all her experiences. He replies that he has created everything from his fantasies. “What is poetry?” “Not reality, but greater than reality. Not a dream but waking dreams.”

Back outside the theater, the Daughter demands that the clover-leaf door shall be opened. Perhaps the secret of life lies behind it. Here is the Officer, with his bouquet for Victoria; here too is the Poet with dreams and reality interwoven in his mind. The Deans of Faculty argue as to the wisdom of opening the door: when it is opened, they find there is nothing behind it.

A much wiser Daughter says farewell to this earth. The castle is on fire. All the characters throw their special attributes into the fire and cease to play their parts. Even the Poet is engulfed by his own flames. Indra’s Daughter remains alone in the universe.

0 crux ave spes unica – Hail, Cross, our only hope.