[4] When tempestuous Mary Lennox (Margaret O'Brien), born in India to wealthy parents, is orphaned by a cholera epidemic, she is sent to live with her reclusive and embittered Uncle Archibald Craven (Herbert Marshall) and her ill-behaved, bedridden cousin Colin (Dean Stockwell), about her own age, at their desolate and decaying estate known as Misselthwaite Manor.

Dickon (Brian Roper), the brother of one of the house maids, tells her of a garden secreted behind a hidden door in a vine-covered wall.

When a raven unearths the key, the two enter and discover the garden is overgrown from neglect since Craven's wife died there in an accident.

Under the influence of the Secret Garden, Mary becomes less self-absorbed, Colin's health steadily improves, and Archibald's curmudgeonly personality fades away.

Not only that, but a good bit of the production is designed to create eerie terror that may discourage parents from letting moppets see the pic.'