Mary Lennox is born in India to wealthy British parents who never wanted her. When her parents suddenly die, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven. She meets her sickly cousin Colin and the two children find a wondrous secret garden lost in the grounds of Misselthwaite Manor.
Quixotic old codger James "Pop Up" Morse (Peter Falk) enjoys spinning colorful yarns for his 11-year-old grandson, Chris (Josh Hutcherson). But the boy's uptight, no-nonsense dad, John (Tim Daly), disdains Pop Up's fantasy world. Believing that John is stifling his son's imagination, Pop Up bolts from his nursing home and sets out on an adventurous cross-country road trip with Chris (sans John's permission) in this made-for-TV family drama.