The document explains exceptions in Java, describing them as disruptions in the normal flow of a program, which can be handled to avoid termination and display user-friendly messages. It details common types of exceptions such as runtime and compile-time exceptions, the mechanism of try-catch-finally blocks for managing these exceptions, and the differences between the 'throw' and 'throws' keywords. Finally, it emphasizes the advantages of Java's exception handling over manual error management in other programming languages.