A well-off family is paid an unexpected visit by a man claiming to be the matriarch’s long-lost uncle. The initial suspicion with which they greet the man slowly dissolves as he regales them with stories of his travels, tales at odds with their conventional middle-class perspective of the world.

Ostensibly a psychological mystery, Satyajit Ray’s last film is a deeply philosophical rumination on the evolution of civilization and human nature. Based on his own short story Athiti, The Stranger ponders on a world where the value of material wealth far exceeds that of humanity, trust, and love.