In nineteenth-century Hannibal, Missouri, mischievous Tom Sawyer hears the steamboat whistle and runs to the river instead of school. Tom fishes with his friend, orphan and town outcast, Huckleberry Finn, who explains his plan to take a dead cat to the graveyard after the gravely ill Hoss Williams dies and is buried, believing that the man’s soul will enter the cat. Town drunk Muff Potter visits with the boys until the menacing Injun Joe appears, reminding Muff of their appointment with Doc Robinson. Muff and Joe arrive at the doctor’s office to find Hoss Williams near death and Doc Robinson tells them to return the following night. Doc Robinson angers Joe by inquiring about his previously injured leg, which Joe believes the doctor fixed incorrectly. When Tom is late for supper, his guardian Aunt Polly asks her children Mary and Sidney where he is and Sidney tattles about Tom missing school that day. Grumbling about the unruly Tom, Aunt Polly sits down to supper with her children and the Widder Douglas. During the meal, Tom climbs a tree and enters his upstairs bedroom window, explaining his tardiness with a tale of spending the day helping the Widder Douglas, who broke her leg that afternoon. Tom is chagrined to see the uninjured Widder Douglas at the table and Aunt Polly sends him to bed with no supper, promising more punishment in the morning. The next day, Aunt Polly assigns Tom the tedious task of whitewashing their fence. As Tom paints, another boy announces that they have new neighbors, Judge Thatcher and his pretty daughter, but Tom retorts that girls are no fun, citing Amy Lawrence, to whom he was “engaged,” as an example. When the boy sympathizes with Tom over his tiresome chore, Tom characterizes it as a pleasure and is so enthusiastic about its satisfactions that the boy begs for a turn painting. More and more boys are swayed by Tom to complete his job for him. Later, Tom meets Becky Thatcher and is immediately smitten with her. That afternoon, Muff spills whiskey on Tom, who later tells Aunt Polly that the smell is from snakebite remedy used to save Muff’s life and again she sends him upstairs without supper, but smiles fondly at his imagination. At midnight, soon after Williams’ death, Tom and Huck take the dead cat to the graveyard where they see Doc Robinson standing over Williams’ grave while Joe and a drunken Muff dig up the body. Joe complains that the doctor is not paying them enough for the task and then accuses him of fixing his leg badly and attacks him. After Muff attempts to break up the fight and is knocked out, Joe uses Muff’s knife to stab the doctor repeatedly as the frightened boys watch. Tom and Huck run away as Joe robs the doctor’s body and puts the bloody knife in Muff’s hand, then awakens Muff and accuses him of killing the doctor. Afraid that Joe saw them, Tom and Huck make a pact to never to divulge what they witnessed and sign it with their blood. The next day at school, Tom hears the children repeating Joe’s story about Muff killing Doc Robinson. Seeing that Tom is upset, Becky writes a note to him on her slate and as they are passing the slate back and forth exchanging notes, Becky drops it, interrupting their teacher, Mr. Dobbins. Becky is about to be punished for the disruption when Tom gallantly takes the blame and Mr. Dobbins canes him while Mary and Becky watch sympathetically and Sidney snickers. That night, Tom tries to convince Huck that they must expose Joe as the murderer in order to save Muff, but Huck argues that Joe would kill them both if they did. The next day, Tom stands in the courthouse during Muff’s trial, silently watching until Joe testifies that Muff stabbed Doc Robinson. Tom shouts that Joe is lying, confessing that he saw the murder and Joe glares at Tom as he takes the stand. When Tom begins to describe the killing, Joe throws a knife at him, narrowly missing his head, then jumps out of the window onto the street below, escaping in a wagon. A reward is posted for Joe’s capture, but everyone assumes that he has left the country. One day, Tom and Becky become engaged, but when she learns that he was previously betrothed, they argue and she jealously stomps away. Moments later, Huck pounces on Tom, denouncing him for breaking their blood pact, and after maintaining that Joe will kill them, he proposes they take his raft to the island to hide. Tom’s excuse for being late that evening is interrupted by Aunt Polly expressing her concerns about him associating with drunks and grave robbers and when Tom talks back, she slaps him. Soon after, Tom tearfully packs his clothes and leaves home. That night, as the boys are rafting down the river toward the island, Huck’s raft comes dangerously close to a riverboat and when the captain is unable to steer clear, Tom and Huck jump for their lives. The next day, Tom and Huck swim and fish on the island, reveling in their freedom, and Tom muses about repaying Becky and his aunt’s ill-treatment of him by staying there forever. Back home, Joe climbs through Tom’s window looking for him and hears people downstairs discussing Huck’s missing raft and the likelihood that the boys have drowned. Early the next morning, when Tom and Huck hear men dragging the river for their bodies, Tom realizes how worried his aunt must be and later, after locating Huck’s raft, they return to Hannibal, where they have been presumed dead. Arriving on the day of their funeral, Tom and Huck stand unnoticed in the back of the church as everyone in town praises them and weeps over their loss. When they are discovered, Aunt Polly embraces Tom and the Widder Douglas welcomes the neglected Huck, inviting him to her house for a good meal. On the Fourth of July, the town attends a picnic and Huck arrives wearing a suit, accompanying the Widder Douglas. The celebration continues through the evening, when Tom leads Becky and some children to McDougal’s Cave. The other children obey the warnings against entering the dangerous caverns, but Tom convinces Becky to go in with him. As Tom and Becky are sampling the underground spring, they look up to see Joe, who vows to kill Tom, and they flee from him through the darkness. The adults are distressed to learn Tom and Becky’s whereabouts, and Huck, who knows the cave, volunteers to lead a search party that includes Muff. When the men call to them, Becky answers, revealing their location to Joe. Finding Tom and Becky on a high ledge, Joe is about to kill Tom when Muff throws a torch onto him and Joe falls to his death. The following Sunday, Huck returns to his shack, preferring the uncivilized life and Muff leaves town with one bottle of whiskey “for snakebites.” Later, Tom excitedly boards the riverboat with Judge Thatcher and Becky for two weeks in St. Louis and even Sidney wishes him well. Standing atop the River Queen, Tom and Becky pass Huck on his raft and the friends wave to each other.