Mary Lennox, a ten year old girl, lives in India with her father, and army captain, and her glamorous mother. Mary’s parents are always too busy to spend any time with her, leaving Mary feeling miserable and lonely. She is often very rude to the people around her.

Mary’s life is suddenly turned upside down when an outbreak of cholera, a devastating disease, leaves nobody in the household alove but herself. After being found by a group of soldiers, she is sent to live with her only remaining relative, her uncle Archibald Craven.

Mary travels across the world to her new home, a huge mansion of over 100 rooms located on the Yorkshire Moors in England. When she arrives at Misselthwaite Manor, Mary finds herself again very much on her own. With all the servants busy at work, and no children to be seen, Mary is told quite clearly by the housekeeper Mrs Medlock: “you’ll have to learn to play by yourself. Just like other children who don’t have a family.

Encouraged by her kind maidservant Martha Sowerby, Mary starts to spend time outside investigating the grounds of the manor. Quickly she makes and intriguing discovery…

Mary is guided by a friendly robin – introduced to her by the gardener Ben Weatherstaff – to a key buried in the ground. Mary finds out that this is the lost key to a locked garden which nobody has set foot in for over ten years! After speaking with Martha, Ben and Dickon – a Yorkshire lad who has grown up on the moors – Mary finds out that the garden belonged to her Aunt Lily, the wife of her uncle Archibald Craven who sadly died ten years ago. In his grief Mr Craven had locked the garden, hidden the key and forbidden anyone to enter the garden again.

With the key in her hand, Mary’s next step is to find the entrance to the secret garden.

There are other secret places in the huge Misselthwaite Manor. Mary has been strictly told not to enter the East Wing of the house, but keeps hearing strange cries coming from there at night and wants to investigate. One night Mary hears the sound again, loud and clear, and she finally makes her journey down the long dreary corridors of the East Wing.

She eventually reaches a room where she finds a boy lying in his bed whimpering. Mary discovers that he is her cousin, Colin Craven, the son of her uncle Archibald Craven. Colin asks Mary to visit him every day because he is too ill to go outside with her and Dickon. She agrees to do this but the two of them keep this a secret from Mrs Medlock and the rest of the servants.

While playing outside one day, Mary comes across the robin, who flies around the grounds, encouraging Mary to follow him. The robin eventually comes to a stop sitting on a wall covered in ivy, which, when blown back by the breeze, reveals a hidden green door. Excitedly, Mary takes the key from her pocket and tries it in the keyhole. For the first time in ten years the door to the secret garden is open…

What new discoveries will Mary make there?