Alice in Wonderland & Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll recap

Alice follows a talking White Rabbit down a hole into Wonderland, where doors, food, and drink continually change her size. Her search for the garden beyond a tiny door brings encounters with a Mouse, a Caterpillar, the Duchess, the Cheshire Cat, the Hatter's tea party, and the violent Queen of Hearts. After the Queen's chaotic croquet game and the Mock Turtle's account of his education, Alice attends the Knave of Hearts's trial for stealing tarts. She grows large, rejects the court's arbitrary rules, and wakes beside her sister as the cards fly at her. The companion poem tells of a young warrior who is warned about the Jabberwock, finds the creature, kills it, and returns with proof of his victory.

Bored beside her reading sister, Alice sees a White Rabbit speak, check a watch, and hurry away. She follows him down a rabbit hole and falls into a hall whose many doors are locked. A small door opens onto an inviting garden, but Alice cannot fit through it. Drinking from a bottle makes her very small, yet the key remains out of reach on a table. Eating a cake makes her enormous instead. She cries until her tears form a pool, then becomes small again and swims with a Mouse and other animals caught in the water.

Alice and the animals reach the bank, where a circular race and a long, confusing tale fail to resolve their disagreements. Alice frightens the company away by talking about her cat. The White Rabbit then mistakes her for his servant and sends her into his house. Another drink makes Alice grow until she fills the building. The Rabbit and his helpers try to force her out, and pebbles thrown through the window turn into small cakes. Alice eats one, shrinks, escapes into the wood, and continues looking for a size that will let her enter the garden.

A Caterpillar questions Alice about her identity and tells her that the two sides of his mushroom have opposite effects on her height. After some awkward experiments she uses it to approach a small house. Inside, the Duchess, a pepper-throwing cook, and a crying baby create constant disorder. Alice rescues the baby, which changes into a pig. The Cheshire Cat tells her that the nearby inhabitants are all mad and directs her toward the March Hare and Hatter. His detached head later puzzles the Queen's officials because they cannot decide how to execute someone whose body is absent.

At an endless tea party, the Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse subject Alice to unanswered riddles, personal remarks, and a story that is repeatedly interrupted. Time no longer advances for the hosts, so they keep changing seats without ever finishing. Alice leaves, finds another entrance to the locked hall, and finally reaches the garden. There she meets the Queen and King of Hearts and joins a croquet game played with live hedgehogs and flamingos. The rules collapse whenever the equipment moves, while the Queen answers every difficulty by ordering an execution.

The Duchess reappears and tries to draw a moral from everything until the Queen drives her away. The Queen then orders the Gryphon to take Alice to the Mock Turtle. The Mock Turtle recalls an undersea school where each subject is a distorted version of an ordinary lesson. He and the Gryphon explain and demonstrate a dance involving lobsters, then perform songs whose familiar patterns have been transformed into nonsense. Their entertainment ends when a distant announcement calls everyone to a trial, and the Gryphon hurries Alice back to court.

The Knave of Hearts is tried for stealing the Queen's tarts, with the King serving as judge and the White Rabbit managing the proceedings. The Hatter and the Duchess's cook give confused testimony, and Alice is called after she begins growing again. A letter presented as evidence neither names its writer nor proves the charge, but the court tries to force a meaning from it. Alice openly challenges the King's rules and the Queen's wish to impose sentence before reaching a verdict. When she says the court is merely a pack of cards, the cards fly at her. She wakes beside her sister, tells her about Wonderland, and goes home while her sister reflects on the dream.

Alice's dream has ended with her return to the ordinary world. The companion poem adds a separate brief adventure built from invented words and ominous creatures. A young warrior is warned about the Jabberwock and other dangers. Carrying a sword, he searches for his enemy and pauses beneath a tree. The Jabberwock approaches, and the warrior kills it in combat. He takes its head home, where his victory is greeted with celebration. The poem closes by returning to the same strange landscape with which it began.

At the Knave of Hearts's trial, Alice challenges the court's meaningless evidence and the Queen's demand for punishment before a verdict. Now growing to her full size, she declares that the court is only a pack of cards. The cards rush at her, and she wakes beside her sister, discovering that Wonderland was a dream. She tells her sister what happened and returns home, while her sister imagines the dream and the adult Alice may become. In the companion poem, a warned young warrior waits for the monstrous Jabberwock, kills it with his sword, and carries its head home. The person who warned him greets the victory with delighted celebration.