Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole

While her older sister reads her a boring book outside, Alice notices something odd: a White Rabbit checking a watch and fretting it will be late. She sneaks away and follows him down a hole. She lands near a long hall with a table and a key, opens a tiny door to a garden with it, drinks from a bottle labeled "DRINK ME" and shrinks, then eats a cake marked "EAT ME" to grow again and fetch the key she left on the table.

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Chapter 2: The Pool of Tears

After eating the cake, Alice grows very tall and cries, creating a pool of tears at her feet. The Rabbit reappears, muttering about keeping a Duchess waiting. Frightened by the giant, crying Alice, the Rabbit runs away, leaving behind his gloves and fan. Alice recites her lessons to confirm she is herself, then fans herself, shrinks again, and tumbles into the pool of tears. She speaks French to a Mouse, who leads her and other animals out of the pool.

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Chapter 3: A Caucus Race and a Long Tale

To help Alice and the animals dry off, the Mouse tells them a “dry story” and the Dodo proposes a (political) caucus race. As prizes, Alice distributes comfits (a type of candy) to the animals and she gets a thimble. The Mouse tells another story, but annoyed by Alice's distraction, he leaves. As the other animals lament his absence, Alice tells them about her cat Dinah, and they all scatter in fear. Alice begins to cry and hears footsteps.

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Chapter 4: The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

The Rabbit commands Alice to fetch his gloves and fan from his house. There, she drinks from another bottle and grows bigger than the house. The Rabbit and his servants try to enter it, but Alice keeps them away. They throw cakes at her, and she eats one and shrinks again. She escapes into a wood, plays with a puppy, and comes across a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah on top of a mushroom.

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Chapter 5: Advice from a Caterpillar

The Caterpillar asks Alice to recite a poem, corrects her, gets annoyed when Alice criticizes its height, then leaves remarking that one side of the mushroom enlarges and the other shrinks. Alice nibbles one side and shrinks, then nibbles the other and her neck stretches above the treetops. A Pigeon mistakes Alice for a serpent and attacks her. Alice once again nibbles the mushroom and shrinks. She sees a small house and eats more of the mushroom before approaching it.

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Chapter 6: Pig and Pepper

Outside the house, a Fish delivers a letter inviting the Duchess to play croquet with the Queen. Inside, Alice finds a Duchess nursing a baby (both of them sneezing), a grinning Cat, and a Cook stirring highly peppered soup. The Duchess sings a lullaby and hands Alice the baby, which turns into a pig. The Cat suggests that Alice visit the Mad Hatter or the March Hare, and it vanishes. At the Hare's house, Alice nibbles the mushroom to grow again.

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Chapter 7: A Mad Tea Party

Alice argues with the Hare and the Hatter, who are having tea outside. She fails to solve a riddle, listens to a Dormouse tell a story and annoys him with her questions, and leaves after being insulted by the Hatter. She goes through a door in a tree, finds herself back in the long hall, picks up the key from the table, uses the mushroom to shrink, and goes through the tiny door into the garden.

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Chapter 8: The Queen’s Croquet Ground

In the garden, Alice sees gardeners shaped like playing cards painting white roses red. The Queen of Hearts discovers the gardeners planted the wrong color flowers and orders their decapitation, but Alice saves them. Alice plays croquet with the Queen, then starts talking to the Cheshire Cat. The King gets annoyed and the Queen orders the Cat's decapitation, but it vanishes before it can be harmed.

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Chapter 9: The Mock Turtle’s Story

Alice walks with the Duchess, who explains the morals of various things. The Queen narrows down the croquet game players to Alice, the King, and herself, after sending the other players off for beheading. The Queen introduces Alice to the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle. The sobbing Turtle explains he used to be a real turtle and tells Alice about his education. When she asks a tricky question, the Gryphon changes the subject.

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Chapter 10: The Lobster Quadrille

The Turtle and the Gryphon describe the Lobster Quadrille to Alice and try to demonstrate the dance while the Turtle sings a tune. They ask Alice to recount her adventures and to recite a poem, but they criticize her renditions. The Turtle sings another song. Then the Gryphon hears the cry "The trial's beginning!" and he whisks Alice away.

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Chapter 11: Who Stole the Tarts?

In the courtroom, Alice finds the King and Queen on their thrones, the Knave chained, and the jurors writing down everything they hear. The Rabbit, as a herald, reads the accusation that the Knave stole the Queen's tarts. Alices starts to grow again, and the Dormouse leaves her side and falls asleep. The Hatter comes forth as the first witness and the Cook as the second. Then Alice is called as the third.

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Chapter 12: Alice’s Evidence

Alice goes to the witness stand and, larger again, knocks the jury box, claims to know nothing about the tarts, argues with the King about a rule, reads a poem used as evidence, and challenges the court procedures. The Queen calls for Alice's beheading, but she fights off the giant cards that attack her. Alice wakes up and tells her adventures to her sister, who then imagines Alice growing up and becoming a mother, and telling these adventures to her own children.

Read a full Summary & Analysis of Chapter 12.