Kim

Kim tells the story of an orphaned Irish boy who grows up in Lahore in British India. Many critics consider Kim to be Kipling's greatest work.

Kim (Kimball O'Hara) is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier. He earns his living by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore. He occasionally works for his friend, Mahbub Ali, a horse trader who is one of the native operatives of the British secret service. One day, he befriends a Tibetan Lama who is on a quest to free himself from the Wheel of Life. Kim becomes his disciple, and accompanies him on his journey. By chance, Kim's father's regimental chaplain identifies him by his Masonic certificate, which he wears around his neck and Kim is sent to a top English school in Lucknow, but he keeps in touch with both the Lama and his secret service connections. After three years of schooling, Kim rejoins the Lama and, at the behest of Kim's superior the Babu, they make a trip to the Himalayas. Here Kim obtains maps, papers, and other important items from the Russians--who were working to undermine British control of the region. The Lama realizes that he has gone astray. His search for the River of the Arrow should be taking place in the plains, not the mountains, and he orders the porters to take them back. Here Kim and the Lama are nursed to health, Kim delivers the Russian intel documents to Babu, a concerned Mahbub Ali comes to check on Kim, and the Lama finds his river and achieves Enlightenment.

The reader is left to decide whether Kim will henceforth follow the materialistic road of the Great Game, the spiritual way of Tibetan Buddhism, or a combination thereof. He is shown to be torn between two worlds: the spiritual life of the priest and the adventurous life of a spy.