in India 1947
Mary Lennox is left alone in a house, after losing her parents to cholera
She is found wandering alone and eating whatever she can find, before being sent
to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven in a Yorkshire estate called Misselthwaite Manor
Mary is first sent to a temporary location with
other children who ignore her when she wants to share a story
Mary tells herself her own stories to entertain herself
but has found herself less eager to continue given the circumstances
she is picked up by Mrs. Medlock who basically tells her
not to expect a conventional new home as her uncle is a very strict man
Mary goes to her room and stays there imagining herself running outside her old home
She tried to get the attention of her mother Alice but she never looked
At midnight, Mary hears what sounds like a crying sound
She goes out of her room to see but finds nothing
Craven is shown to have a hunchback and he gets rid of anything
that reminds him of his late wife Grace, who was Alice’s sister
Mary meets the maid Martha but Mary treats her rudely
Afterward, she goes out into the field to have lunch
A small dog sees her and although Mary tries to shoo the dog away
she changes her mind and follows it but loses it in the woods
When Mary returns home
she remembers playing outside her old home trying to get her mother’s attention
but she just told their maid to take care of Mary so she won’t bother her
Mary asks Martha if soldiers lived in the house
because she thinks she saw spirits outside
She later returns outside the next day to find the dog
Assuming it’s a girl she names the dog Jemima
She chases the dog around for fun until she is called to go back to the house
Later that night, Mary hears the crying sound again and goes to investigate
She meets Craven’s son named Colin who is sick
but the two realize they are cousins since their mothers were sisters
Mary returns to her room and dreams about how she played with her father
she talks to Martha again and says she saw Martha’s brother
Dickon in the garden despite Martha denying it
Mrs. Medlock then gets Mary to talk to Craven
since he is none too pleased with Mary
going about the house nor that she seems to remind him too much of Grace
He tells her that if she continues to cause trouble he will send her away to a boarding school
Mary goes back to find Jemima to play together until they lose each other in a fog
and Mary finds the dog’s paw caught in a bear trap
She frees Jemima who then runs off with a wounded paw
Mary continues to wander around the garden until she sees Jemima again
She then encounters a robin that leads her to a statue that contains a key inside
tells Jemima she will return the next day to tend to the leg
After a bath Mary visits Colin again and tries to encourage him to leave his room
but he claims that his condition is so bad that being outside almost killed him
She tries to talk up the garden as a magical place
but he is uninterested and just asks her to read him a story that his mother used to read him
Later, Mary goes into a room with some of Grace’s old dresses
which she plays around with before finding a portrait of Grace and Alice together
She also finds and takes a pearl necklace
Mary asks Martha about Grace
stating that her mother never talked about life in England
Martha says that the two sisters were thick as thieves and that the house used to host balls
Mary has another flashback to her old home
where her father took her away, after her mother was too ill to see her
and Mary snapped and wished that she would die already
Mary runs back to the garden to look for Jemima,
and encounters Dickon who informs Mary that Jemima is a boy dog
They find the dog, whom they rename Hector and
Dickon takes him to a lake and dips the paw in there
then lets Hector lie in the grass so that his paw can heal
Mary later tells Colin about it
and suggests that he leave his bed
She wheels him into the room that she found the night before
but Colin is overwhelmed by it demands that she take him back to his room
She tries to get him to look closer
and they are sort of transported into the memory of their mothers
where they see themselves as kids playing
but Colin thinks it’s a trick that Mary came up with out of jealousy
for his mother loving him more than hers did
After he falls out of his chair Mary helps him back up and returns him to his room
she plays with Dickon in the garden where they imagine it growing large flowers
They decide to visit Colin, and they hatch a plan to sneak him into the garden to heal him
Although he is nervous at first
Colin is enchanted, when they go through the wall of the garden and see how beautiful it all looks
They have fun by the lake with Hector,
but the fun is spoiled when Mrs. Medlock finds Mary and the pearl necklace
She is brought back to Craven, who declares that she will be sent away to the boarding school
later, Mary finds letters written by Grace and shows them to Colin
As Mary is prepared to be shipped off, she instead runs away into the garden with Colin and Dickon
In his office, Craven tries to light a candle, but drops the flame
The children then see black smoke coming from the house and rush over
Mary runs into the house to find Craven, who is looking for Colin
and She tells him that Colin is outside
As the flames grow stronger
and the house starts to come down Craven is guided by a vision of Grace while Mary sees Alice
says she is sorry for not knowing how sick she was
Alice kisses her daughter
as she and Craven make it out of the house safely
Mary takes Craven to Colin who begins to walk on his own
and Craven embraces his son
Craven proceeds to rebuild the house
while Mary continues to spend time with Colin, Dickon and Hector in the garden