In his lightest work, Ghatak views the big city of Calcutta through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, Kanchan, who runs away from his small village to escape the cruelty of his father. In this strange new place he is befriended in turn by a costumed street vendor who was once a teacher and now fancies himself a pied piper; a youthful magician who is really a gangster; a wealthy young girl and her kindly parents; and a downtrodden servant woman who is beaten by her employers. Even seen through his naive eyes the city has its own cruelties; only youth itself is incorruptible. When he returns to his village, Kanchan finds his father, and thus his world, changed for the better.