The narrative begins when a bored young girl named Alice spots a waistcoat-wearing White Rabbit and impulsively follows him down a deep burrow, tumbling into a strange subterranean hall. There, a series of magical elixirs and cakes cause her to shrink and grow unpredictably, trapping her in a cycle of physical transformations that complicate her efforts to enter a lovely garden.
After swimming in a pool of her own giant tears and meeting a collection of peculiar animals, including a disgruntled Mouse and a Dodo directing a Caucus-race, Alice continues her pursuit of the elusive rabbit. Her journey leads her to a smoky kitchen where a Duchess nurses a baby that transforms into a pig, and she receives vague geographical directions from a grinning Cheshire Cat.
Moving deeper into the fantasy realm, Alice attends an endless, maddening tea party hosted by the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and a somnolent Dormouse. The eccentric trio trade circular riddles and rude remarks, offering no real assistance but deepening the strange, logic-defying atmosphere of the woodland.
Eventually, Alice gains entry to the magnificent garden, where a nervous group of playing-card gardeners are hastily painting white roses red to avoid the wrath of the tyrannical Queen of Hearts. This leads Alice into a chaotic game of croquet utilizing live hedgehogs as balls and flamingoes as mallets, punctuated constantly by the Queen's demands for executions.
The surreal journey continues as Alice is introduced to a melancholic Mock Turtle and a haughty Gryphon, who recount their sea-school education and demonstrate the elaborate steps of the Lobster Quadrille. Throughout these encounters, Alice maintains her earnest curiosity despite the illogical rules and constant badgering from the eccentric inhabitants.
The story builds toward a chaotic climax during the trial of the Knave of Hearts, accused of stealing tarts. As the courtroom proceedings descend into utter absurdity and Alice grows physically larger once more, she boldly talks back to the authoritarian monarch, rejecting the authority of the card-people entirely.
Provoked to righteous anger as the entire deck of cards rises up to attack her, Alice suddenly awakens from her slumber with her head in her sister's lap on a sunlit riverbank. She recounts the vivid details of her remarkable dream, leaving her sister to ponder the magic of childhood imagination as evening begins to fall.
