While sitting by a riverbank with her sister, a young girl named Alice spots a talking White Rabbit with a pocket watch and tumbles down a deep rabbit hole after him. Landing in a strange subterranean hall, she discovers a tiny golden key and a door leading to a beautiful garden, prompting a series of frantic physical transformations triggered by mysterious potions and cakes that leave her constantly growing and shrinking.
Her journey through the underground world brings her into contact with increasingly bewildering entities, including a weeping pool of her own tears, a panicked mouse with a fierce hatred for cats, and a frantic rabbit who mistakes her for his housemaid. After trapping herself in the rabbit's cottage by growing too large, she escapes into the surrounding woods and encounters a pipe-smoking blue caterpillar who advises her on how to manage her fluctuating stature using a magical mushroom.
Further wandering leads her to the chaotic household of the Duchess, where a crying baby transforms into a pig and a grinning Cheshire Cat directs her toward a maddening outdoor tea party. At this endless gathering, she engages in wordplay and frustrating riddles with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and a somnolent dormouse before finally managing to slip away and enter the long-sought garden.
Inside the colorful gardens, she stumbles upon a chaotic croquet match hosted by the furious Queen of Hearts, where hedgehogs serve as balls, flamingos act as mallets, and death sentences are issued at the slightest provocation. Reunited briefly with the Duchess and the vanishing Cheshire Cat, she struggles to survive the illogical rules and erratic tempers of the royal courtiers.
The surreal adventure culminates in a bizarre courtroom trial where the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the queen's tarts. As the King of Hearts acts as judge and a comical jury of animals fumbles over their notes, Alice continues to grow back to her normal size while listening to nonsensical evidence and absurd poetry readings.
Fed up with the arbitrary rules and authoritarian tantrums of the court, Alice boldly talks back to the furious monarch, dismissing the entire royal court as nothing more than a harmless deck of playing cards. This final confrontation breaks the spell, and she wakes up safely on the riverbank with her head in her sister's lap, realizing her entire bizarre ordeal was merely an elaborate afternoon dream.
