A 10-year-old girl walks into a world that doesn't care about her survival, only her usefulness. The film watches her learn that the only way out is to stop being afraid of losing her name, her parents, or her way back. Every frame is painted like memory itself, and Joe Hisaishi's score turns her small acts of courage into something that feels like growing up.

On the way to their new house, ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents wander into an abandoned amusement park. As night falls, the place fills with spirits, and her parents are turned into pigs after eating food they find there. Chihiro, the only human left, is cut off from home in a world of spirits. Help comes from Haku, a mysterious boy who says he knew her in the past. On his advice she takes a job at the bathhouse where he works. With her courage and the friends she makes along the way, she sets out to restore her parents and find a way back home in this fantasy adventure.