Tom plays hooky to go swimming with Huck, and nearly gets away with it too until Sid interferes. To get back at him, Tom rashly boasts that he'll get a prize bible before Sid does.
Faced with spending his whole Saturday whitewashing Aunt Polly's fence, Tom persuades his friends to do the work for him and to pay for the privilege too. Tom meets Judge Thatcher's niece, Becky, and immediately falls in love with her.
After deliberately getting into trouble at school so that he can sit with the girls, Tom persuades Becky to meet him at recess, when he suggests that they get engaged.
Tom and Huck visit the graveyard at midnight, intending to use a dead cat to cure warts. But instead of the devils they expect, three grave robbers arrive and the boys witness the murder of the doctor.
Tom and Joe are both miserable so, together with Huck, they decide the only thing for them to do is to run away and become pirates. When their boat springs a leak, they set up camp on Jackson Island.
Aunt Polly and Mrs Harper discover that their boys are missing, and realize that Tom, Joe and Huck ran away. They start to fear the worst when the leaky boat the boys stole washes ashore.
Joe and Huck are starting to get bored of being pirates and consider going home but Tom, having overheard the plans for the boys' funeral, has a more dramatic return in mind.
The whole town, including Indian Joe, gathers to hear one witness after another speak out against Muff Potter and it looks as if nothing at all will be said in his defense.
Tom and Huck decide to hunt for buried treasure, and after having no luck digging around dead trees, they decide to try a haunted house. But before they get a chance to hunt for the treasure, Indian Joe arrives.
After searching around town all day, Huck finally finds Indian Joe plotting to take revenge on Widow Douglas. Meanwhile, Tom and Becky leave the school group to go exploring on their own, but get lost in the caves.
Just as the search parties are starting to give up hope, Tom finally finds a way out of the caves. Tom and Huck return to see if the treasure is hidden there.
Tom and Huck are rich, and Widow Douglas and her sister take pity on Huck and adopt him. But wearing fancy clothes and being civilized doesn't suit Huck at all and he soon gets tired of it and runs away.
Pap Finn has returned and is determined to get his hands on Huck's money, so he kidnaps Huck and locks him up in a deserted cabin while he tries to convince the Judge to hand over what he claims is rightfully his.
Huck eventually escapes from the cabin where his father locked him up, and sets about making it look as if he's been attacked. Finding the cabin empty, Judge Thatcher suspects that Pap Finn has murdered Huck.
Aunt Polly and Widow Douglas blame themselves for not doing more to help Huck. Then Miss Watson's slave, Jim, runs away. Meanwhile Huck is enjoying his new-found freedom on Jackson Island.
Huck and Jim find a raft washed ashore by the high water, and think their luck is even better when they also find a house boat... until they discover a dead body inside.
Huck and Jim build a shelter on their raft, in case they need to hide... which happens sooner than they expect as a couple of slave traders start nosing around.
With the raft and all his belongings lost, and no idea where Jim is, Huck looks for shelter and stumbles across the Grangerfords, who are busy feuding with their neighbors.
Huck learns more about the feud, and finds that they don't even stop on Sundays when he meets the Shepherdsons at church. Then he discovers that Jim has been hiding nearby and has fixed up their raft.
Huck discovers that Sophia's run away to marry a Shepherdson, which escalates the feud. He finally rejoins Jim and they return to the river to continue their journey.
Huck runs into two men who introduce themselves as Duke and Dauphin. Although Huck has doubts about them being royalty, he decides to keep quiet since he and Jim have secrets of their own.
The Duke and Dauphin turn to acting and stop at a town to put on a show, but the locals don't appreciate their talents. Forced to leave the town in a hurry, Huck and Jim start to have doubts about their guests.
Huck returns to the raft to find that Jim is gone and soon discovers that the Duke and Dauphin have sold Jim to a nearby farm. At the farm he meets Aunt Sally who mistakes him for Tom Sawyer.
Huck continues to pretend that he's Tom when the real Tom arrives and confuses things even more by introducing himself as Sid. Tom agrees to help rescue Jim but insists on doing things the way they are in the books.
Tom continues to slow down Jim's escape by insisting things be done the way they are in the books. But his anonymous letter leads to Tom getting shot as he, Huck and Jim try to get away.
Jim is recaptured while helping the doctor look after Tom. Then Aunt Polly arrives unexpectedly, and the truth about Tom and Huck's name-switching comes out, along with their involvement in Jim's escape.
