One archetypethe youngest son who sets out to seek his fortunemeets another: a wizard returning home after completing his apprenticeship. Although the two never meet again, both of their lives are changed by the chance encounter and by subsequent events in the invisible world of the mind.
These events include the experiences of meditating monks, the wizards spells, and the explorations by both the wizard and a female monk into the nature of time and the possible existence of alternative realities.
The Invisible World is inextricably linked with the reality of the physical world: a world like our own in pre-industrial times but with some differences in social attitudes towards religion and towards sexual behaviour.
