When Mary Lennox arrives in England from India, having crossed the dark Yorkshire moors to Misselthwiate Manor, she is as uncomely as a weed and every bit as contrary. Friendless, Mary spends long hours, lonely hours hiking across the moors or wandering about the gardens surrounding the manor. One blustery afternoon, the wind whisks aside a curtain of overgrown ivy which had hid the entrance to an unknown garden from view. From that point onward the deserted garden takes firm root in Mary's imagination and she determines to find a way inside.