Tom Sawyer, the mischievous, adventurous boy, always was looking for trouble to keep his life interesting. Tom, along with his friends, Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper planned adventures to keep themselves busy. Tom, being the boy that always gets into trouble, was at the same time smart. He got out of his punishments, given by his Aunt Polly whom he lives with. His cousin Sid, whom he also lives with informed Aunt Polly with all of Tom’s mischief. Tom tried not only to get out of his punishments, but he tried to find ways to avoid school too.
Tom’s own adventures always get him in more trouble than expected. While on his way to the graveyard to find a cure to warts, he and his friend witness a murder. Trying to keep what they have seen a secret, Tom suffers with nightmares and a guilty conscience. Meanwhile, he has fallen in love with a new girl in school, Becky Thatcher, which completely ignored him and broke his heart. Tom and his friends decided to escape their life of misery and pain, and stick by with each other until death. They planned another one of their adventures of becoming pirates and set sail to Jefferson’s Island.
They stayed there until they started getting homesick, Tom returned home to find Aunt Polly worrying about him and planning his funeral. He quickly returned to tell his friends about their “funeral” and his great plan of showing up at their own funeral. After returning home, he ignores Becky, and gets on with his life, not knowing that he is really in love. When summer comes, he catches the measles and is forces to stay in bed for weeks. After he is well, the trial of the murder he had witnessed starts.
Not able to keep in his secret any longer he tells his story and the murderer, InJun Joe escapes. Fearful that Joe will seek revenge of Tom he gets frightened, but he becomes a hero. Forgetting about Injun Joe, which was never captured, Huck and him plan another adventure to look for treasures in haunted houses. Not being aware that the house they are searching gold for is the same house Injun Joe is in, they hear his plans of “revenge” against Widow Douglas, the judge’s wife. Huck and Tom also hear where the treasure can be found.
Huck keeps an eye out, while Tom attends Becky’s picnic where they are friends again. Becky and Tom both get lost in a cave and Tom ends up seeing Injun Joe. Huck informs the widow and she was saved from murder. Injun Joe locked in the cave, dies of hunger while Tom and Becky find a way out. Not being in enough trouble, Huck and Tom return to the cave to find the treasure, and luckily find 12,000 dollars worth of gold. They split it and they live in a lives as famous boys and told their tales over and over to other boys, while continuing their adventures.