When Mary Lennox is orphaned following an uprising in India, the girl is taken into the care of her Uncle Archibald Craven at Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire only to discover her Uncle largely absent. The house is large, empty and joyless, with Mary's only occasional companions the domestic staff. One day a robin's birdsong leads Mary to a walled garden, locked and seemingly abandoned, and helps her find the key buried in the ground. She opens the door to a neglected ruin - ten years ago this was the garden of her Uncle's wife, killed in a fall from a tree swing. The manor's other secret is Colin, Craven's son, apparently crippled through illness. Mary and local boy Dickon tend to the secret garden, hoping to bring it back to life and so encourage Colin back to health and bring Uncle out of his morose mood.