The work is based on the legend of the famous XIII century minnesinger. Heinrich von Ofterdingen. The external event canvas is just the necessary material cover for depicting the deep inner process of the poet's formation and for comprehending by Henry the life ideal, allegorically depicted by Novalis in the guise of a “blue flower”. The main semantic load is borne by Henry's dreams, parables, tales and myths told to him.

The novel consists of two parts. The first, completed, is called "Waiting." Twenty-year-old Heinrich, a chaplain’s student, has a dream that he wanders through a dark forest, goes to the mountains and finds a blue flower in an indescribable beauty. The blue flower is a symbol of German romantic poetry, in other words - pure poetry and perfect life. He is not able to watch his dream to the end, because his mother enters his room and wakes him up.

A little later, Henry leaves Turin, the home of his father, and together with his mother goes to Augsburg, to her homeland. They travel accompanied by merchants, also heading to South Germany. Henry, who is destined to become a great poet, listens with trepidation to the stories of his fellow travelers about poets and about their power over the souls of all living beings. Merchants introduce him to two legends. One of them speaks of how, once, in ancient times, one illustrious poet and singer was threatened with death at the hands of the owners of the ship greedy for his treasures, on which he sailed by sea. However, his songs shocked the sea animals so much that they saved his life and returned the treasures taken from him. In another legend, we are talking about the court of the enlightened, patronizing poetry of the king and his daughter, who once left her parents' house and hid from her father for a whole year, living in the forest with a loved one. A year later, her beloved, with her songs and playing the lute, took possession of her father’s heart so much that he granted them both forgiveness and embraced them and his newborn grandson.

A few days later, travelers stop at the castle of an old warrior and become witnesses of preparations for a new crusade. In his possessions, Henry meets a young captive Zuleima brought from the East. She languishes away from her homeland and mourns her bleak fate.

After leaving the castle, Henry and his companions soon stop in the foothill village, where he meets an old miner. He tells them about his life, about metals and minerals hidden in the bowels of the earth. Under his leadership, they visit a whole gallery of caves in the mountains, where they find the remains of prehistoric animals and get acquainted with the hermit von Hohenzolern, who, after a glorious and full of military exploits of youth, retired from people to rest, learn about the inner life of his soul and study history. The hermit shows them his books. In one of them, Henry sees the cave, himself, and next to him - a hermit and an old man, but all are dressed in unusual clothes and inscriptions are made in a language incomprehensible to him. Gradually, he finds on other pages an oriental woman, his parents and many other people he knows.

Having familiarized himself with some secrets of history and the bowels of the earth during his travels around the country, Heinrich von Ofterdingen finally arrives in Augsburg, to his grandfather, the old Schwaning. In the house of his grandfather, Heinrich met with the poet Klingsor, a majestic man whose image he had already seen in the hermit's book, and his daughter Matilda. Between young people at first sight love begins, and soon they become the bride and groom.

Klingsor leads the spiritual maturation of young Heinrich. He talks with him about poetry, about his inner world and about the most expedient and natural “use” of his spiritual powers. He encourages him to develop his mind, as well as comprehend the laws of events in the world and the "essence" of any business, any phenomenon, so that his soul eventually becomes attentive and calm. It is also necessary that the soul be sincere, and the sincere soul is like light, it is as penetrating, powerful and invisible as light.

Henry tells Klingsor about his journey, and all his speech, its structure and imagery testify that the young man was born to be a poet.

According to Klingsor, poetry is not unusual, it is "the main property of the human spirit." At the evening of the feast, Klingsor, at the request of Heinrich, tells the guests a symbolic tale of the victory of poetry over rationality and its other enemies. This story anticipates what was supposed to be discussed in the second part of the novel. The tale speaks of the kingdom of Arcturus and the beautiful Frey, his daughter, Eros and his milk sister Fable, as well as their godmother Sofia.

The second part of the novel (Novalis did not have time to finish it) is called “Accomplishment”. It begins with the fact that Henry, in the guise of a wanderer, in a state of indifferent despair into which he fell after the death of Matilda, wanders through the mountains. Augsburg is spread out below him, in the distance a mirror of a terrible mysterious stream glistens. Aside, he seems to see a monk kneeling in front of an oak tree. It seems to him that this is an old court chaplain. However, coming closer, he realizes that in front of him is only a cliff, over which a tree bent. Suddenly the tree begins to tremble, the stone begins to ring deafly, and joyful singing is heard from under the ground. A voice is heard from the tree, asking Henry to play the lute and sing a song, and promises that then a girl will appear who he must take with him and not let go of himself. Henry recognizes in him the voice of Matilda. In the foliage of a tree, a vision of his beloved appears in front of him, which looks at him tenderly with a smile. When the vision disappears, all suffering and worries leave his heart. There is nothing left but silent languor and sadness. The pain of loss and a feeling of emptiness pass around. Henry begins to sing and does not notice how the girl approaches him and takes him away with him. She introduces him to an old man, whose name is Sylvester, he is a doctor, but it seems to Henry that an old miner is standing in front of him.

It turns out that a long time ago the old man was visited by Henry's father, in which Sylvester saw the makings of a sculptor and introduced him to the precious heritage of the ancient world. However, his father did not obey the call of his true nature, and the surrounding reality took too deep roots in him. He became just a skilled craftsman.

The old man wants Henry to return to his hometown. However, Henry says that he knows his homeland better when traveling to different countries, and in general people who travel a lot differ from others in a more developed mind and other amazing properties and abilities. They are talking about the importance of the prevalence of a single power, the power of conscience over all things; the cause of evil, which, according to the old man, is rooted in general weakness; about the interpenetration and the single "essence" of all worlds and feelings in the universe.

Novalis did not have time to complete this second part, in which he wanted to express the very essence of poetry. He did not even have time to formalize his idea that everything in the world: nature, history, war, everyday life - everything turns into poetry, because it is the spirit that animates everything that exists in nature. In the second part, Henry had to become more familiar with the world around him. He was supposed to get to Italy, participate in hostilities, at the emperor’s court, meet with the son of Frederick II and become his close friend, visit Greece, make a trip to the East, all the way to Jerusalem, then return to Thuringia and take part with Klingsor in famous poetic tournament. The continuation of the novel was to turn into a mythological and symbolic narrative in which everything: animals, plants and stones - had to talk and undergo magical transformations. Matilda, already after her death, in the guise of various women had to meet Heinrich often, who finally had to wake the blue flower from her sleep.