On the banks of the Mississippi River, a rambunctious young boy named Huckleberry “Huck” Finn is in the midst of a fistfight when he notices a boat docked along the shore. Realizing that his abusive, drunkard father, “Pap” Finn, has returned, Huck seeks help from his friend Jim, an African American slave, who advises the boy to run away. Huck returns to the plantation house of Jim’s owner, Miss Watson, and her sister, the Widow Douglas, who have attempted to civilize the orphan since his father’s disappearance. That night, Huck begins to pack for his escape, but is distracted by his friends’ calls to come outside and play. When he returns, Pap abducts him and reveals that he came to collect the inheritance left for Huck by his late mother. Because the money cannot be accessed at the bank until Huck reaches legal age, he attempts to kill the boy with a knife, but eventually passes out from intoxication. The next morning, Pap awakens with no recollection of the night before, and decides to visit town. While alone, Huck uses boar’s blood to stage his own death and escapes to Jackson’s Island, where he encounters Jim, recently escaped from being sold to a slave trader from New Orleans, Louisiana. Equipped with a map, Jim plans to float downriver to Cairo, Missouri, before turning up the Ohio River toward the free states, where he can earn enough money to buy his family’s freedom. Dressed as a girl, Huck attempts to steal food and supplies from a baker, who reveals that Jim is wanted for Huck’s murder. To avoid being caught, Jim and Huck choose to only travel at night and begin their adventure downriver after dusk. During a heavy storm, they encounter a quickly-sinking barge, which Jim discovers contains Pap’s corpse. When their canoe capsizes, the travelers board a raft, and Jim decides to keep Pap’s death a secret from Huck, concerned that the boy would force them to return home. As they near Cairo, Huck grows uncomfortable with Jim’s abolitionism and decides to turn him in, but at the last moment, he does not follow through. Later, a steamboat destroys their raft, separating the travelers and forcing Huck to swim ashore. He is captured by the wealthy Grangerford family and pretends to be an orphan named George Jackson. During his stay at their estate, he befriends the Grangerford son, Billy, and learns that Jim was captured and chained inside their barn. Once he is put to work picking cotton, Jim pleads with Huck to leave as soon as possible, but Huck accuses him of selfishness, and announces his intent to stay with the Grangerfords. Over time, however, he realizes that he feels guilty and apologizes to Jim for forcing him back into slavery. When he returns to the house for dinner, Huck discovers the Grangerfords have left to retrieve the eldest daughter, Sophie, who has eloped with a member of the Shepherdson family, their long-hated rivals. The feud culminates in a bloody shootout that leaves most of the Grangerfords dead, but enables Huck and Jim to escape on their repaired raft. One night, they realize they overshot Cairo by forty miles and plan to buy return passage on a steamboat. The next morning, two conmen known as the “King” and “Duke” of Bilgewater, force their way onto the raft. When they recognize Jim as a wanted murderer, they blackmail the duo into assisting with their scheme to pose as the English brothers of a recently deceased man named Peter Wilks. Welcomed by Peter’s unwitting daughters, Julia, Mary Jane, and Susan, the King and the Duke inherit Peter’s chest of gold coins, but greedily plot for a way to steal more of Wilks’s property. Meanwhile, Huck sneaks away from the house and learns that Jim was arrested. At the prison, Huck promises to help free Jim in time to catch the next steamboat, but feels deceived when Jim finally admits to knowing about Pap’s death. Upon the boy’s return to the Wilks home, the King falsely promises to take the daughters back to England, allowing the thieves to auction their belongings and steal the profits. Feeling bad for swindling the kind-hearted ladies, Huck hides the gold in Peter’s coffin before it is buried, and reveals the deception to Mary Jane. As Huck sets off to break Jim out of prison, the real Wilks brothers arrive from England, prompting each pair of men to argue their identity before the ignorant townspeople. To verify the Wilks’ claim that their brother had a tattoo, the now riotous mob exhumes Peter’s corpse and tar the King and the Duke. In the commotion, Huck steals the deputy’s keyring and frees Jim from his cell. As they run, Huck is shot in the back and collapses just meters from the departing steamboat. Jim sacrifices his freedom to carry Huck back toward town, where the mob immediately places a noose around his neck. Moments before he is lynched, Mary Jane arrives with a shotgun and forces them to release Jim, as Huck falls unconscious. A week later, he awakens in Mary Jane’s bed and is greeted by the Widow Douglas, who is proud of Huck for rejecting society’s attitudes about slavery and helping Jim escape. Just then, Jim walks in dressed in a waistcoat and cravat to inform Huck that Miss Watson recently died. Wracked with the guilt of selling Jim away from his family, she reneged the transaction and granted him his freedom in her will. Once Huck is healed, the Wilks daughters gratefully award him $500, which he gives to Jim. Although the Widow Douglas intends to take Huck home to continue his education, the boy tears off his suit jacket and runs free through the meadows, back toward the Mississippi River.