The plot involves the disappearance of several schoolgirls and their teacher during a picnic at Hanging Rock, Victoria on Valentine's Day in 1900, and the subsequent effect on the local community.

Picnic at Hanging Rock was a commercial and critical success, and helped draw international attention to the then-emerging Australian New Wave of cinema.

Sara, a quiet orphan who has been separated from her older brother Bertie, is forced to stay behind with Miss Lumley and the school's headmistress, the harsh Mrs. Appleyard.

Later, the girls awaken and Miranda, Marion and Irma proceed in a trance into a hidden crevice; Edith watches and screams in terror as she flees back down the Rock.

A police search yields no clues, despite Edith's fragmented accounts of the girls' disappearances, seeing Miss McCraw running up to the Rock without her skirt, and seeing a mysterious red cloud.

Michael stays at the Rock overnight and finds Irma alive inside a crevice the next day, but loses consciousness due to heat exhaustion.

News attention begins to swarm the search parties as Michael's dreams about the disappearances continue, with Miranda symbolized via the presence of a white swan.

As the school's reputation and financial stability suffers, Mrs. Appleyard informs Sara that her guardian has not contacted the college in months and her tuition has not been paid.

The night before the rest of the students are set to leave the college for Easter, the date Sara was given for her guardian to resolve missing fees, Mrs. Appleyard visits her in the dormitory to tell her that she must return to the orphanage.

The next morning, Albert recalls a dream to Michael in which his sister Sara visited him ("Bertie"), surrounded by her favorite flower, to bid him goodbye.

The gardener rushes into Mrs. Appleyard's office to report the tragedy and finds her sitting calmly at her desk, wearing funeral attire, with her suitcases already packed.

A voiceover explains that Mrs. Appleyard, facing the collapse of her school and haunted by the disappearances and ensuing events, was found dead at the base of Hanging Rock, having apparently fallen while climbing it.

During a flashback to the picnic day, the voiceover states that the disappearances of Miranda, Marion, and Miss McCraw remain unsolved mysteries despite further search attempts, continuing to haunt the local community.

[1] Screenwriter David Williamson originally was chosen to adapt the film, but was unavailable and recommended noted TV writer Cliff Green.

Leading Heidelberg School member Frederick McCubbin also lived in and often painted the Macedon Ranges, the setting and filming location of Picnic at Hanging Rock.

[7] Boyd created the ethereal, dreamy look of many scenes by placing simple bridal veil fabric of various thicknesses over his camera lens.

[12] An album Flute de Pan et Orgue (Music from Picnic at Hanging Rock) was released by Festival Records France.

It may be a warm sunny day, the innocence of girlhood and hints of unexplored sexuality that combine to produce a euphoria so intense it becomes transporting, a state beyond life or death.

Weir recalled that when the film was first screened in the United States, American audiences were disturbed by the fact that the mystery remained unsolved.

"[15] Richard Freedman of The Star-Ledger wrote "it is so drenched in the sensuality of a time and way of life long passed that it is a sheer pleasure for weary 20th Century eyes to behold.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Visually mesmerizing, Picnic at Hanging Rock is moody, unsettling, and enigmatic -- a masterpiece of Australian cinema and a major early triumph for director Peter Weir".

Director Sofia Coppola has borrowed heavily from Picnic at Hanging Rock for her productions of The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette.

[25] Both films, like Picnic at Hanging Rock, deal extensively with themes of death and femininity as well as adolescent perceptions of love and sexuality.