Basil, a young English writer, comes to the harshly beautiful island of Crete to re-open a lignite mine he has inherited from his native-Greek father. There he meets Alexis Zorbas, a tough, wily, lusty Greek peasant who will reveal to him another view of life. The plans for the mine fall through, while the writer's relationship with a beautiful widow ends in tragedy. Yet Zorba retains his optimistic faith in life.