While other parents adore their newborn children, Mrs Wormwood is distraught to learn she is pregnant and in labour. To Mr Wormwood's confusion, she has a girl, Matilda. Despite her parents' disdain, Matilda grows into a sweet child who loves reading books and visits Mrs Phelps, the librarian, every day. Upon discovering that Matilda has not been properly schooled, Miss Jennifer Honey and an inspector visit the house to suggest Matilda be sent to Crunchem Hall. Angry at being fined for not enrolling Matilda on time, Mr Wormwood falsely claims to the headmistress, Miss Agatha Trunchbull, that Matilda is a troublemaker. In retaliation, Matilda tricks him into dyeing his hair green.On her way to school, Matilda tells Mrs Phelps her story about an escapologist who falls in love with and marries an acrobat. When the school bell rings, Matilda befriends a new girl named Lavender. They are taught to fear the school and Miss Trunchbull by the prefects. In Miss Honey's class, Matilda solves a complex maths equation on the board and confesses that she loves reading most of all. Miss Honey tries to convince Miss Trunchbull to move Matilda to a more advanced class, but Miss Trunchbull refuses to let Matilda be an exception to the rules.At home, Matilda criticises her father, who furiously rips her library book apart and sends Matilda to her room. In the morning, she glues his hat to his head. At school, Matilda leads the students in protecting Nigel from being wrongfully punished, and Miss Trunchbull throws Amanda Thripp by her pigtail braids over the fence instead. The next day, Miss Trunchbull falsely accuses Matilda of stealing a slice of her private chocolate cake, but Bruce Bogtrotter reveals he is the culprit by belching a chocolatey belch. Miss Trunchbull punishes Bruce by forcing him to eat the entire cake, promising he will be forgiven if he manages it. Furious that he succeeds, Miss Trunchbull condemns him to the Chokey regardless. Matilda attempts to defend him as he is led away. Matilda continues the story for Mrs Phelps: the now-pregnant acrobat was forced to perform a dangerous stunt by her stepsister; the acrobat is horribly injured, and she dies after giving birth to a daughter. The escapologist forgives the stepsister and asks her to help him raise his daughter, but the stepsister secretly bullies her.At home, Mr Wormwood locks Matilda in her room for criticising how he tricks people into buying his cars. Matilda ends her story: the aunt locks the daughter in the cellar and goes out, and the escapologist comes home early and learns his daughter is mistreated but never returns from confronting the stepsister. Miss Trunchbull forces the children through challenging exercises to crush their rebellious spirit. Lavender slips her pet newt Isaac into Miss Trunchbull's drinking water, and Matilda furiously uses her newly discovered telekinesis to toss Isaac down Miss Trunchbull's shirt. Miss Honey invites Matilda to tea at her cottage. There, Matilda learns that her story is real, the escapologist and the acrobat are Miss Honey's parents, and the evil stepsister is Miss Trunchbull. Matilda leaves the cottage and uses her powers to destroy the Chokey. At home, Matilda discovers that her father unwittingly scammed members of the mafia, and the family must flee to Spain. Matilda cries in her room about never seeing Miss Honey, Mrs Phelps and Lavender again.When the children arrive at school, Miss Trunchbull forces them to spell words correctly or be locked in a new Chokey. She has Lavender spell a made-up word, tricking the other children into rebelliously spelling words incorrectly on purpose so that she can lock them all into Chokeys. However, Matilda uses her telekinesis to pretend to be the vengeful ghost of Magnus Honey, Miss Honey's father. She uses him to destroy all her new chokeys, then grabs her by her now pigtailed hair and launches her out of the school, just as Trunchbull did with Thripp. Miss Honey tells Miss Trunchbull never to return and takes back the keys to her father's house. The children celebrate their freedom, destroying Trunchbull's statue in the process. When Mr and Mrs Wormwood come to take Matilda to Spain, Miss Honey begs them to let Matilda stay with her. They allow Matilda to be adopted by Miss Honey, and Matilda uses her powers to unglue her father's hat. With Miss Honey as the new headmistress, the children rename the school The Big Friendly School. Mrs Phelps is overjoyed that Matilda's true story has a happy ending and that Matilda and Miss Honey live happily together.