In an affluent Chicago, Illinois, suburb, Peter and Kate McCallister, their five children, and Peter’s brother and sister-in-law, with four children—thirteen in all—rush through Peter and Kate’s large home preparing to leave for a Christmas trip in Paris, France. Harry, a professional cat burglar disguised as a police officer, talks to Peter, ostensibly to make sure the homeowner has taken proper security measures. Peter’s youngest son, eight-year-old Kevin McCallister, notices Harry’s gold front tooth and instinctively dislikes him. Kevin is the family brat, and everyone, especially his older brother, “Buzz” McCallister, picks on him. Buzz tells Kevin and one of their cousins that Mr. Marley, an old man next door who puts rock salt on the snowy neighborhood sidewalks, murdered his family in 1958, but was never convicted because no bodies were found. When Buzz provokes his kid brother during dinner, Kevin attacks him and starts a chain reaction of accidents that prompts Kate to send Kevin to the attic bedroom for the rest of the night. Complaining that everyone hates him, Kevin wishes the family would “all just disappear.” Kate dares him to say it again, with the threat that repeating his wish might make it come true, so Kevin again wishes them gone. During a strong wind at four-thirty in the morning, a tree limb falls on a power line, knocking out the McCallisters’ electricity and silencing clock radios. As the Airport Express vans arrive at 8:00 a.m., the McCallisters are still in bed. Scrambling to get to the airport on time, the family forgets Kevin. He awakens and goes downstairs to find the house empty. The presence of cars in the garage convinces him they did not leave for the airport, so he believes his wish made them disappear. Overjoyed by freedom, Kevin eats ice cream, watches violent videotapes, sleds down the staircase, uses his father’s toiletries, and raids Buzz’s personal things, including his pellet gun and firecrackers, and accidentally frees Buzz’s pet tarantula. Meanwhile, flying over the Atlantic Ocean, Kate realizes Kevin is not on the airplane. As night falls, Harry and his partner-in-crime, Marv, sit in a van marked “Oh-Kay Plumbing & Heating,” watching as electrical timers in several houses switch on outside Christmas bulbs and other lights to give the impression someone is home. They prepare to rob the McCallister house, but when Kevin hears them outside, he turns on porch lights and scares them away. At first, Kevin runs upstairs and hides under his parents’ bed, but soon realizes he is the “man of the house.” Running outside, he sees Mr. Marley salting the snowy sidewalk and hurries, terrified, back inside. In Paris, Kate telephones the police back home because the McCallister telephone is not working. A patrolman is dispatched to the house, but his pounding on the door sends Kevin into hiding. The cop reports that nobody is home and all is secure. Because of the holidays, airplanes flying to the U.S. are full, so Kate trades her first-class ticket home for an economy-class seat on the next airplane out. Kevin steals Buzz’s money and goes to a drugstore to buy a toothbrush, but when Mr. Marley comes into the store, Kevin runs away in fear. Meanwhile, as Harry and Marv rob the Murphy house across from the McCallisters’, Peter McCallister telephones the Murphys from Paris to see if anyone is home. Listening to Peter’s message, Harry realizes the McCallister house should be empty and plans to rob it that night. As the thieves leave the Murphy house, Marv stops up the kitchen sink and turns on the water to flood the place, a modus operandi that has earned the two crooks the name “the wet bandits.” In the driveway, Harry almost runs over Kevin returning from the store. Kevin becomes frightened when he recognizes Harry from his gold tooth, and Harry is disturbed by the boy’s reaction. When Harry follows him, Kevin runs and hides, and by the time the boy returns home, he swears to be ready for the intruders. That night, when Harry and Marv arrive, Kevin scares them off by creating moving silhouettes on the front shades with standup posters and mannequins to create the impression of a party. Looking at a portrait of his parents and four siblings, Kevin wishes he could have them back again. The next day, the boy shops at a supermarket with Buzz’s money, washes clothes in the basement, and acts like the man of the house. Staking out the seemingly empty house, Harry tells Marv that something does not look right. He sends Marv to check the back door, but Kevin plays a violent video and lights firecrackers to make the burglar believe other thieves are fighting each other inside. Harry decides they should stick around to find out who the other thieves are. Arriving in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Christmas Eve, Kate cannot get a seat on an airplane home, but Gus Polinski, “Polka King of the Midwest,” offers to drop her off because his band is driving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in a rented van and Kate’s home is on the way. When Harry spots Kevin sawing down a fir tree in the McCallister back yard, he realizes the little boy has tricked them. Harry sneaks up to a window and peers in at Kevin setting up a Christmas tree, but the boy sees the robber’s face reflected in a Christmas ornament. Kevin opens a side window and listens as the thieves get into their van in the driveway, discussing their plan to return at 9:00 p.m. Early in the evening, Kevin goes to a local “Santa hut” and asks a raggedy Santa to tell the “real” Santa that he wants his family back in lieu of Christmas presents. As Kevin walks home, the sight of other families enjoying Christmas Eve makes him homesick. He hears choral music at a church, goes inside, and listens to a choir practice. He notices Mr. Marley sitting nearby. The old man wishes Kevin a Merry Christmas and invites the boy to sit beside him. Marley recognizes Kevin as his neighbor and assures him the stories he may have heard are untrue. He is watching his granddaughter rehearse with the choir, because he and his son once had a terrible argument and now his family does not want him around. Kevin suggests that Marley overcome his fear of rejection, telephone his son, and make up. They shake hands, and Kevin hurries home. Arriving before 9:00, he hoses down the outside steps to make them icy, puts fresh tar on the cellar steps, and rigs several booby traps inside the house. When the robbers arrive at the back door, Kevin shoots them with pellets through a doggie door. Both robbers fall on slippery ice, and once they get inside the house, Kevin’s Rube Goldberg-like inventions burn Harry’s head and Marv’s face, and make Marv step on a nail and pieces of glass. When the robbers trap Kevin in the attic, he slides down a rope to a backyard tree house. The robbers follow, but Kevin cuts the rope, sending Harry and Marv crashing into the side of the house. They chase the boy to the Murphy house, which is now partially flooded from the open kitchen taps, but as they capture Kevin, Marley sneaks up from behind and knocks them out with a snow shovel. Kevin rushes home before police arrive. Harry and Marv are arrested for being “the wet bandits.” Before going to bed, Kevin hangs seven stockings on the mantel. As he awakens on Christmas morning, Kate arrives and embraces him. Moments later, his father and siblings rush in the door, saying they caught a flight home. Everyone is shocked at how Kevin has prepared the house for Christmas and stocked it with food. Looking through a window, Kevin sees Mr. Marley hugging his son. The old man waves thanks to the boy. In the kitchen, Peter finds Harry’s gold tooth on the floor and wonders what it is.